Satyam Shivam Sundaram

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Photo Credit: Truth Ultimate

Satyam Shivam Sundaram

In the East God has been defined as Satyam, Shivam, Sundaram. Satyam means the truth, Shivam means the good/the auspicious and Sundaram means the beautiful. These are the three approaches towards God, three doors to enter into the ultimate.

Either one enters as a seeker of truth - that is the approach of the philosopher. And by philosophy we do not mean that which is taught in the universities. By philosophy we mean the original meaning of philosophy: love of wisdom. Lovers of wisdom enter from the door of truth. It is a different path, but they reach the same peak, the peak is the same.

The person who enters through the door called good is the person who tries to live a life of simplicity, innocence, purity – this is the virtuous one. And by the virtuous we don’t mean the moralist. The moralist is an egoist. Such a person is cunning, calculative. This person’s morality is not much, his/her morality is just a policy; hence such a person says, ‘Honesty is the best policy.’ It is politics. A game is being played. Such a person is trying to deceive even God. He/she is only pretending to be good, he/she is not good.

To be virtuous is totally different. It is not a question of having a good character. It is a question of having more consciousness in our being, not conscience but consciousness. Conscience makes character, consciousness creates virtue. When we are alert, more alert than people ordinarily are, we have the capacity to see what is right and what is wrong. And each moment we decide; we don’t carry ready-made answers.

The person of so-called character lives out of ready-made answers; hence he/she is never in tune with life, never in step with life. His/her answers are old, and life always raises new questions. But the virtuous person is spontaneous. He/she enters from the door of good.

The poet, the painter, the sculptor, and all those who love beauty enter from the third door. If one can enter from the third door, the preference is for the third. If it is impossible then the next preference is for the second door, the door of spontaneous virtue. If that too is difficult, then only should one choose the path of wisdom, because that is the hardest path, the most arduous. And there is no need to be a martyr unnecessarily. When one can go easily, when one can go dancing and singing, why carry a cross?

Let that be our path - creativity. Create something beautiful. And whatsoever we do, be creative — that will be our religion, that will be our meditation. 

Religion has failed for the simple reason that it was uncreative. Anything uncreative cannot succeed. God is a creator. The only way to succeed in God’s existence - and there is no other existence - is to be creative. Create beauty, appreciate beauty, love beauty. Let beauty be our god. Worship beauty.