Realisation of Beauty

Things in which we do not take joy are either a burden upon our minds to be got rid of at any cost; or they are useful, and therefore in temporary and partial relation to us, becoming burdensome when their utility is lost; or they are like wandering vagabonds, loitering for a moment on the outskirts of our recognition, and then passing on. A thing is only completely our own when it is a thing of joy to us.

The greater part of this world is to us as if it were nothing. But we cannot allow it to remain so, for thus it belittles our own self. The entire world is given to us, and all our powers have their final meaning in the faith that by their help we are to take possession of our patrimony.

But what is the function of our sense of beauty in this process of the extension of our consciousness? Is it there to separate truth into strong lights and shadows, and bring it before us in its uncompromising distinction of beauty and ugliness? If that were so, then we would have had to admit that this sense of beauty creates a dissension in our universe and sets up a wall of hindrance across the highway of communication that leads from everything to all things.

But that cannot be true. As long as our realisation is incomplete a division necessarily remains between things known and unknown, pleasant and unpleasant. But in spite of the dictum of some philosophers man does not accept any arbitrary and absolute limit to his knowable world. Every day his science is penetrating into the region formerly marked in his map as unexplored or inexplorable. Our sense of beauty is similarly engaged in ever pushing on its conquests. Truth is everywhere, therefore everything is the object of our knowledge. Beauty is omnipresent, therefore everything is capable of giving us joy.

In the early days of his history man took everything as a phenomenon of life. His science of life began by creating a sharp distinction between life and non-life. But as it is proceeding farther and farther the line of demarcation between the animate and inanimate is growing more and more dim. In the beginning of our apprehension these sharp lines of contrast are helpful to us, but as our comprehension becomes clearer they gradually fade away.

The Upanishads have said that all things are created and sustained by an infinite joy. To realise this principle of creation we have to start with a division--the division into the beautiful and the non-beautiful. Then the apprehension of beauty has to come to us with a vigorous blow to awaken our consciousness from its primitive lethargy, and it attains its object by the urgency of the contrast. Therefore our first acquaintance with beauty is in her dress of motley colours, that affects us with its stripes and feathers, nay, with its disfigurements. But as our acquaintance ripens, the apparent discords are resolved into modulations of rhythm. At first we detach beauty from its surroundings, we hold it apart from the rest, but at the end we realise its harmony with all. Then the music of beauty has no more need of exciting us with loud noise; it renounces violence, and appeals to our heart with the truth that it is meekness inherits the earth.

In some stage of our growth, in some period of our history, we try to set up a special cult of beauty, and pare it down to a narrow circuit, so as to make it a matter of pride for a chosen few. Then it breeds in its votaries affections and exaggerations, as it did with the Brahmins in the time of the decadence of Indian civilisation, when the perception of the higher truth fell away and superstitions grew up unchecked.

In the history of aesthetics there also comes an age of emancipation when the recognition of beauty in things great and small become easy, and when we see it more in the unassuming harmony of common objects than in things startling in their singularity. So much so, that we have to go through the stages of reaction when in the representation of beauty we try to avoid everything that is obviously pleasing and that has been crowned by the sanction of convention. We are then tempted in defiance to exaggerate the commonness of commonplace things, thereby making them aggressively uncommon. To restore harmony we create the discords which are a feature of all reactions. We already see in the present age the sign of this aesthetic reaction, which proves that man has at last come to know that it is only the narrowness of perception which sharply divides the field of his aesthetic consciousness into ugliness and beauty. When he has the power to see things detached from self-interest and from the insistent claims of the lust of the senses, then alone can he have the true vision of the beauty that is everywhere. Then only can he see that what is unpleasant to us is not necessarily unbeautiful, but has its beauty in truth.

When we say that beauty is everywhere we do not mean that the word ugliness should be abolished from our language, just as it would be absurd to say that there is no such thing as untruth. Untruth there certainly is, not in the system of the universe, but in our power of comprehension, as its negative element. In the same manner there is ugliness in the distorted expression of beauty in our life and in our art which comes from our imperfect realisation of Truth. To a certain extent we can set our life against the law of truth which is in us and which is in all, and likewise we can give rise to ugliness by going counter to the eternal law of harmony which is everywhere.

Through our sense of truth we realise law in creation, and through our sense of beauty we realise harmony in the universe. When we recognise the law in nature we extend our mastery over physical forces and become powerful; when we recognise the law in our moral nature we attain mastery over self and become free. In like manner the more we comprehend the harmony in the physical world the more our life shares the gladness of creation, and our expression of beauty in art becomes more truly catholic. As we become conscious of the harmony in our soul, our apprehension of the blissfulness of the spirit of the world becomes universal, and the expression of beauty in our life moves in goodness and love towards the infinite. This is the ultimate object of our existence, that we must ever know that "beauty is truth, truth beauty"; we must realise the whole world in love, for love gives it birth, sustains it, and takes it back to its bosom. We must have that perfect emancipation of heart which gives us the power to stand at the innermost centre of things and have the taste of that fullness of disinterested joy which belongs to Brahma.

Music is the purest form of art, and therefore the most direct expression of beauty, with a form and spirit which is one and simple, and least encumbered with anything extraneous. We seem to feel that the manifestation of the infinite in the finite forms of creation is music itself, silent and visible. The evening sky, tirelessly repeating the starry constellations, seems like a child struck with wonder at the mystery of its own first utterance, lisping the same word over and over again, and listening to it in unceasing joy. When in the rainy night of July the darkness is thick upon the meadows and the pattering rain draws veil upon veil over the stillness of the slumbering earth, this monotony of the rain patter seems to be the darkness of sound itself. The gloom of the dim and dense line of trees, the thorny bushes scattered in the bare heath like floating heads of swimmers with bedraggled hair, the smell of the damp grass and the wet earth, the spire of the temple rising above the undefined mass of blackness grouped around the village huts--everything seems like notes rising from the heart of the night, mingling and losing themselves in the one sound of ceaseless rain filling the sky.

Therefore the true poets, they who are seers, seek to express the universe in terms of music.

They rarely use symbols of painting to express the unfolding of forms, the mingling of endless lines and colours that goes on every moment on the canvas of the blue sky.

They have their reason. For the man who paints must have canvas, brush and colour-box. The first touch of his brush is very far from the complete idea. And then when the work is finished the artist is gone, the windowed picture stands alone, the incessant touches of love of the creative hand are withdrawn.

But the singer has everything within him. The notes come out from his very life. They are not materials gathered from outside. His idea and his expression are brother and sister; very often they are born as twins. In music the heart reveals itself immediately; it suffers not from any barrier of alien material.

Therefore though music has to wait for its completeness like any other art, yet at every step it gives out the beauty of the whole. As the material of expression even words are barriers, for their meaning has to be constructed by thought. But music never has to depend upon any obvious meaning; it expresses what no words can ever express.

What is more, music and the musician are inseparable. When the singer departs, his singing dies with him; it is in eternal union with the life and joy of the master.

This world-song is never for a moment separated from its singer. It is not fashioned from any outward material. It is his joy itself taking never-ending form. It is the great heart sending the tremor of its thrill over the sky.

There is a perfection in each individual strain of this music, which is the revelation of completion in the incomplete. No one of its notes is final, yet each reflects the infinite.

What does it matter if we fail to derive the exact meaning of this great harmony? Is it not like the hand meeting the string and drawing out at once all its tones at the touch? It is the language of beauty, the caress, that comes from the heart of the world straightway reaches our heart.

Last night, in the silence which pervaded the darkness, I stood alone and heard the voice of the singer of eternal melodies. When I went to sleep I closed my eyes with this last thought in my mind, that even when I remain unconscious in slumber the dance of life will still go on in the hushed arena of my sleeping body, keeping step with the stars. The heart will throb, the blood will leap in the veins, and the millions of living atoms of my body will vibrate in tune with the note of the harp-string that thrills at the touch of the master.

美的感悟

不能給我們帶來(lái)快樂(lè)的事物,要么是大腦中無(wú)論如何也揮之不去的某種負(fù)擔(dān);要么是因?yàn)樗虝r(shí)間內(nèi)是有用的,因而與我們有某種聯(lián)系,而一旦用處不再,就成了累贅;要么象云游四海的流浪漢,偶爾在我們的意識(shí)之外飄過(guò)之后就消失了.只有我們喜歡的東西我們才會(huì)完全擁有它.

在我們看來(lái),世界上大部分事物似乎什么都不是.但是我們不能讓它這樣,因?yàn)檫@樣一來(lái),我們自己擁有的東西就顯得貧乏和渺小了.假如讓我們擁有了整個(gè)世界,我們所有的力量就有了最終的意義,因?yàn)槲覀兿嘈胚@些力量會(huì)幫助我們擁有祖先留下的遺產(chǎn).

但是當(dāng)我們對(duì)外界的認(rèn)識(shí)越來(lái)越多的時(shí)候,我們感受到的美的作用是怎樣的呢?它是用來(lái)區(qū)分現(xiàn)實(shí)中的光明和黑暗,把美和丑的鮮明對(duì)比帶到我們的面前嗎?如果那樣,我們就不得不承認(rèn)對(duì)美的這種感知導(dǎo)致了世界的不和諧,就無(wú)形中樹(shù)起了一堵墻,阻礙了世間萬(wàn)物不可間斷的交流.

但是事實(shí)并非如此,只要我們對(duì)世界的認(rèn)識(shí)不完整,已知的和未知的,令人愉快的和令人不快的之間的分歧就依然存在.但是盡管有哲學(xué)名言,人類(lèi)仍然不承認(rèn)個(gè)人對(duì)世界認(rèn)知的武斷性和絕對(duì)性.人類(lèi)對(duì)世界的認(rèn)識(shí)總是局限于個(gè)人的未經(jīng)探索研究或者沒(méi)有能力去探索研究的經(jīng)驗(yàn)上.我們只是簡(jiǎn)單地不由自主地被美征服,從而感知它的存在.真理存在于每一種事物中,因此每一樣事物我們都客觀面對(duì).美是無(wú)處不在的,因此每一種事物都有能力帶給我們快樂(lè).

早期的人類(lèi)把一切的事物都用生命現(xiàn)象來(lái)解釋.生命科學(xué)最初是以有無(wú)生命力的明顯差別開(kāi)始的.但是隨著人類(lèi)社會(huì)不斷進(jìn)步,有無(wú)生命力的界限越來(lái)越模糊.早期我們認(rèn)為事物是有明顯差別的,這種理解是有益的,但是隨著我們對(duì)世界的認(rèn)識(shí)越來(lái)越明確,這些差別就漸漸消失了.

奧義書(shū)上說(shuō)所有的事物都由快樂(lè)創(chuàng)造并且支撐.為了明確這種創(chuàng)造的基本要義,我們需要進(jìn)行區(qū)分__區(qū)分美的和不美的東西.然后我們對(duì)美的理解才茅塞頓開(kāi),從原始的混沌中被喚醒,迫切地想推翻過(guò)去從而達(dá)到現(xiàn)在的認(rèn)識(shí).因此我們最初見(jiàn)到的美,穿著五顏六色的羽衣,格子條子縱橫交錯(cuò),外表看上去七零八落.但是當(dāng)我們對(duì)它的認(rèn)識(shí)臻于成熟的時(shí)候,那些看起來(lái)不和諧的表面開(kāi)始消融,節(jié)奏變的統(tǒng)一了.最初我們是把美與周?chē)h(huán)境中剝離出來(lái),使其有別于周?chē)?但是最終我們意識(shí)到了萬(wàn)物的和諧.然后,美變成了音樂(lè),沒(méi)有了聒躁的聲音來(lái)煩擾我們;它摒棄暴力,呼吁我們的心向上向善.

在我們成長(zhǎng)的某個(gè)階段,在我們歷史的某個(gè)時(shí)期,我們企圖建立一套對(duì)美的崇拜模式,讓它陷入一種狹隘的怪圈,成為少部分人用以炫耀的資本.正如印度文明衰落時(shí)期的婆羅門(mén)教,它被無(wú)限夸大,成了反人類(lèi)情感的溫床,那個(gè)時(shí)期的人們漸漸喪失了對(duì)真理的追求,封建迷信乘虛而入.

美學(xué)歷史也迎來(lái)了開(kāi)明的時(shí)期,人們心悅誠(chéng)服地承認(rèn)了,事物無(wú)論偉大或者渺小都存在著美.過(guò)去被我們驚為異類(lèi)的事物,今天在它們身上我們看到了平常而樸實(shí)的和諧.凡此種種,我們因此必須要經(jīng)歷各種轉(zhuǎn)變的時(shí)期,在這些時(shí)期里對(duì)于美的判斷,我們既要避免對(duì)某一種事物明顯的偏好,也要避免死抱著舊有的觀念不放.然后我們要抵斥夸大平常事物,避免讓它們恣意扭曲.為了重建和諧,我們創(chuàng)造了不和諧,這是各種思潮爭(zhēng)論的特點(diǎn).在當(dāng)今時(shí)代,我們已經(jīng)看到了美學(xué)思潮的跡象, 它證明了在美學(xué)領(lǐng)域把美和丑對(duì)立起來(lái)是一種狹隘的觀念.當(dāng)一個(gè)人具備了不再用狹隘自私的觀念和不再固執(zhí)地遵從自我感覺(jué)來(lái)看待事物的能力,他自身對(duì)周?chē)挛锞陀辛苏嬲睦斫?他自己就能看到,在我們看來(lái)令人不愉快的事物未必就不美好,而具備著它真實(shí)的美.

正如說(shuō)"世上沒(méi)有謊言"是荒唐的一樣,當(dāng)我們說(shuō)美無(wú)處不在時(shí),并不是指就不應(yīng)該再提丑陋了.丑陋當(dāng)然是存在的,但是并不是在現(xiàn)實(shí)世界里,而是作為消極因子存在于我們自己的理解能力范圍中.生活中對(duì)美的曲解是一種丑陋,同樣地,藝術(shù)中對(duì)真理的不完美的認(rèn)識(shí)也是一種丑陋.在某種程度上,我們能夠?qū)⑽覀兊纳钆c真理法則進(jìn)行對(duì)比,這個(gè)法則存在于我們自己心中,存在于一切事物中;同樣地,我們能夠?qū)⒊舐c永久的和諧法則進(jìn)行比較,這個(gè)法則也是無(wú)處不在的.

通過(guò)對(duì)真理的感知,我們意識(shí)了到天地萬(wàn)物的法則,通過(guò)對(duì)美的感知我們意識(shí)到了宇宙的和諧.當(dāng)我們認(rèn)識(shí)到自然的法則我們就進(jìn)一步掌握了自然界的力量,變得強(qiáng)大起來(lái);當(dāng)我們認(rèn)識(shí)到道德的法則我們就能把握自己,變得自由起來(lái).同樣地,我們?cè)蕉嗟乩斫庾匀唤绲暮椭C,就越多的感受到自然萬(wàn)物帶給我們的快樂(lè),我們?cè)谒囆g(shù)中對(duì)美的表達(dá)就越接近普遍的真理.當(dāng)我們的心靈達(dá)到和諧,我們就會(huì)全面理解精神世界的幸福感,我們?cè)谏钪芯蜁?huì)朝善的方向表達(dá)美,就會(huì)無(wú)盡地表達(dá)我們的愛(ài).這是我們生存的終極目標(biāo),我們必須要知道"美就是真,真就是美",我們必須意識(shí)到整個(gè)世界是充滿愛(ài)的,因?yàn)槭菒?ài)誕生了世界,支撐著世界,把整個(gè)世界擁抱在懷.我們必須完美地敞開(kāi)我們的內(nèi)心,這會(huì)給予我們力量站在萬(wàn)物的中心,達(dá)到梵天的境界,充分體驗(yàn)?zāi)欠N高尚無(wú)私的快樂(lè).

音樂(lè)是最純粹的藝術(shù)形式,因此它以一種純粹的不受外部阻礙的方式和精神最直接地表達(dá)美.我們似乎感覺(jué)到世間萬(wàn)物就象音樂(lè)本身一樣以無(wú)限來(lái)表現(xiàn)有限,沉寂卻讓人能夠感覺(jué)到有聲.夜空不知疲倦地閃爍著群星,就象一個(gè)咿呀學(xué)語(yǔ)的嬰兒,驚嘆于自己發(fā)出的第一個(gè)聲音,口齒不清地不斷重復(fù)這一個(gè)單詞,并帶著無(wú)盡的快樂(lè)傾聽(tīng)著.當(dāng)七月的夜雨來(lái)臨,草地上的黑暗濃重起來(lái),雨聲滴嗒,一圈一圈驚擾了沉睡的泥土的寂靜,連單調(diào)的雨聲也似乎變得漆黑了.一行行茂密的樹(shù)朦朦朧朧, 滿是荊棘的灌木叢散落在光禿禿的長(zhǎng)滿小石頭的荒地上,象一個(gè)個(gè)頭發(fā)零亂的泳者漂浮在水面上的頭部,潮濕的野草和濕漉漉的地面?zhèn)鬟f著氣息,寺廟的聳立著的尖頂,俯瞰著下面一大片一大片的暗影,暗影結(jié)成隊(duì),把村莊的小屋包圍了___一切都似乎是從夜晚的心臟發(fā)出的音符,交融著消失在天空無(wú)盡的雨聲中.

因此真正的詩(shī)人們.他們是幻想家,用音樂(lè)的語(yǔ)言來(lái)闡釋宇宙.

每一次作畫(huà),他們都很少用象征的手法在畫(huà)板上展示對(duì)天空的形狀,交錯(cuò)的線條和色彩的描繪.

他們這樣做是有理由的.對(duì)于作畫(huà)時(shí)必須要有畫(huà)板,刷子和顏料盒的人來(lái)說(shuō),他一接觸到刷子心里的想法就沒(méi)有了.作完畫(huà)后藝術(shù)家也消失了,只剩帶有窗戶的畫(huà)孤零零地掛在哪兒.那只不斷傳遞愛(ài)的創(chuàng)造之手也被收回了.

但是音樂(lè)家的一切都深藏在內(nèi)心.音符正是來(lái)自于他的生命活力,而不是來(lái)自于外部聚集的材料.他的想法和表達(dá)是就象兄妹似的;通常是孿生的.在音樂(lè)中心靈可以即時(shí)將自己表達(dá)出來(lái);它不會(huì)受任何陌生的物質(zhì)上的阻礙.

因此雖然音樂(lè)也象其它藝術(shù)一樣一步步走向圓滿,但是它的每一步呈現(xiàn)的都是整體的美.作為實(shí)物的表達(dá),甚至連語(yǔ)言都是一種障礙,因?yàn)樗鼈兊囊饬x是由思維構(gòu)成的.但是音樂(lè)從來(lái)沒(méi)有必要依賴(lài)于明顯的意思;它所表達(dá)的東西不是語(yǔ)言能夠表達(dá)的.

而且,音樂(lè)和音樂(lè)家是分不開(kāi)的.當(dāng)音樂(lè)家去世的時(shí)候,他的音樂(lè)也隨著他一起消亡了;音樂(lè)終生伴隨著它的主人的命運(yùn)與歡樂(lè).

這首<世界歌>一刻也沒(méi)有與它的歌唱者分離過(guò).它并不是因?yàn)橥獠课镔|(zhì)而變得時(shí)尚.它是他的快樂(lè),永不停歇.是偉大的心靈通過(guò)天空傳遞著的快樂(lè)的顫栗.

每一種音樂(lè)都是完美的,在不圓滿中表現(xiàn)圓滿.沒(méi)有一種音符是有結(jié)局的,然而每一種音符的意境卻都是無(wú)限的.

即便這種巨大的和諧沒(méi)有確切的意義可表達(dá),又有什么關(guān)系呢?難道這不象是手碰到和弦而立即畫(huà)出的音符?這是關(guān)于美的語(yǔ)言,是這個(gè)世界頃刻間對(duì)我們心靈的愛(ài)撫.

昨夜,黑暗中彌漫著寂靜,我一個(gè)人站在那里,傾聽(tīng)著歌者永不停歇的歌喉.入睡的時(shí)候腦海中還著縈繞著之前的瞑想,甚至在我昏昏欲睡時(shí)的潛意識(shí)中,生命的舞蹈,和著窗外滿天的繁星,還在我入眠的身體上繼續(xù).只要豎琴的主人一撥動(dòng)琴弦,我的心就隨著震顫的旋律跳動(dòng)起來(lái),血液在血管內(nèi)澎湃,身體里數(shù)百萬(wàn)個(gè)活躍的原子伴隨著琴弦的節(jié)奏舞動(dòng)起來(lái).

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