Beauty

The absolute beauty of Krsna is sung in praises by great sages who incarnate themselves as cowherd girls (gopis) in order to enjoy loving exchanges with Him. His supreme original form, as exhibited in the forests of Vrndavana, is that of a youth of around sixteen years of age. He descended on earth as the embodiment of love, all spiritual in essence, and He attracts men, women, and all that move and move not. He comes with laughter and with loving glances, and He wears brilliant yellow cloth and garlands and plays His flute. In the forests of Vrndavana He sports with the cowherd girls, the gopis, who worship Him with the holy sentiment of transcendental love. Since He is love incarnate, He enchants even the heart of the God Narayana, and the divine Laksmi transformed herself into the hairs on His chest so that she can always be near His heart.

It is stated in the Caitanya-caritamrta that Krsna is so supremely lovely that He attracts Himself and even desires to embrace His own form. Upon seeing the beauty of His fresh, youthful, brightly shining limbs reflected upon a pillar of pearls, He yearned for Himself like Radha. "I bestow joy to all," He says, "but who can bestow joy upon Me?" His love's power instills joy, and Radha is the essence of this love.

The body of Krsna is the figure of beauty itself. It is tinged with the color of blue clouds. The bottoms of His hands and feet are pink. His torso is bare, but from His neck hangs a garland of flowers, beautified with a locket in the shape of the moon. From His waist a cloth of dazzling gold hangs in folds. His flowing black hair reaches His shoulders. He wears a golden, bejeweled crown topped by peacock feathers. His eyes are as large as the petals of a full blown lotus, and His hands and lips play lightly upon a flute. Being the embodiment of supreme absolute beauty, He is ultimate majesty and beauty, perfect in every respect. His eternal form is incomparable and is worshiped throughout the creation. His very name, Krsna, means He who attracts everyone.

In Lord Caitanya, a play written by this author and based on the Caitanya-caritamrta, Lord Caitanya praises the beauty of the Lord in this way: "His beauty is an ocean of nectar whose waves flood the arid hills of the soul. His words delight the ear. His arms and legs surpass the coolness of a thousand moons. Oh, His beauty enchants my senses so! How sweet the fragrance of His lips! My five senses ride my mind like a horse and drive the mind at once five different ways. And He dances through my mind, and my mind, overjoyed, responds to Him, His speech, His touch, and my mind is ridden to madness, death. Yet I cannot blame my senses, for the Lord attracts them so. Oh, the waves of His beauty cover the mountains of my yearning soul! His speech ravishes my ears with mischief, and His touch, O His touch is cool, and His limbs, so fragrant, soft, strong, intoxicating, surpass the color of the blue lotus. His lips mixed with the sweet camphor of His smile grow sweeter. His color is sweeter than the nimbus, and His cloth brighter than lightning. What autumnal moon compares to His face covered with locks of hair? Rainbows of peacock feathers crown His head, and stars wreath His neck like pearls. Oh, the Lord kills the gopis with love. His chest is broad and high, and small hairs adorn it. These hairs are Goddess Laksmi who transformed herself to dwell always on His breast. And this breast is a robber who steals a trillion hearts. Oh, He enchants the gopis with shining cheeks and crocodile shaped rings hanging from His ears and His sharp side glances full of smiles. Yes, He is a clever hunter and they His prey whom He kills at will. And His arms are soft but strong and lethal as blue cobras, for they pry open the doors of the soul and inject the painful venom of love. Even the god of love now pines for Him."

In the Bhagavad-gita Arjuna tells Krsna, "You are the unborn and all pervading beauty." (Gita, 10.12) Therefore, all beauty that is seen in the material world is but a reflection of that absolute beauty existing in Krsna.

In the Tenth Chapter of the Gita, Arjuna says that "neither the gods nor demons, O Lord, know Thy personality. Indeed You alone know Yourself by Your potencies." (Gita, 10.14, 15) He then requests Krsna to tell him in detail of His divine powers by which He pervades all the worlds and abides in them. Lord Krsna replies, "Yes I will tell you of My splendorous manifestations; but only of those which are prominent, O Arjuna, for My opulence is limitless." (Gita, 10.19) Lord Krsna then proclaims that He is the self seated in the hearts of all and is the beginning, middle and end of all creatures. After establishing this, He begins to enumerate specific incarnations and phenomena which is He Himself. He mentions demigods, animals and natural wonders like the Himalayan Mountains and the Ganges. Among all living entities in the world, He is the greatest. He is wind, death, fire, inexhaustible time, the spiritual science of the self, the flower-bearing spring, splendor, victory and adventure, the generating seed of all existences, the rod of chastisement, statesmanship, silence, wisdom, the holy fig tree, the ocean, the thunderbolt, the monarch among men, the greatest among elephants and serpents and other animals, and so on. At the conclusion of this brief account of some of His opulences, He says, "O mighty conqueror of enemies, there is no end to My divine manifestations. What I have spoken to you is but a mere indication of My infinite opulences. Know that all beautiful, glorious and mighty creations spring from but a spark of My splendor." (Gita, 10.40-42)