Beauty is all within

Beauty is all within: There is an immediate response to what is beautiful and what is not. We respond to pleasure and pain and we put our feelings immediately into words. To understand what beauty is, and to have that sense of goodness which comes when the mind and heart are in communion with something beautiful, has great significance; and until we know this response to beauty, our lives will be very shallow. One may be surrounded by the great beauty of mountains and fields and rivers, but unless one is alive to it all, there is no use. What is beauty? Cleanliness, tidiness of dress, a smile, a graceful gesture, the rhythm of walking, a flower in your hair, good manners, clarity of speech, thoughtfulness, being considerate of others, that includes punctuality, all this is part of beauty  And there is what we call ‘inner beauty’. There is beauty of form, of design, beauty of materialism. You may be fair and have a beautiful face, good features, you may dress with good taste and have polished manners, you may draw and paint well, or write well, but without inward sense of goodness, all the other external factors lead to a very superficial life - a life without much significance.  It is inward beauty that gives grace, an exquisite gentleness to outward form and movement. This is what really counts. To help you discover what is inward beauty is one of the functions of right education.  Can a shallow mind appreciate beauty? It may talk about beauty but can it experience this welling up of immense joy upon looking at something that is really lovely?  When the mind is merely concerned with itself and its own activities, it is incapable of knowing what beauty is. But a mind that is not concerned with itself, and is free of any kind of ambition, always flowers in goodness.  When there is inward goodness, the face is transformed, for inward goodness is a deeply spiritual feeling that makes one glow.