In Her resides all beauty and brilliance. All the lakṣmīs derive their beauty from Her.
Caitanya Caritāmṛta, Ādi-līlā 4.92
Caitanya Caritāmṛta, Ādi-līlā 4.92 in the last of a series of verses expressing the idea that the eight lakṣmīs, most beautiful, most splendid, most prosperous and fortunate of all demigods, derive their beauty from Rādhā.
We know Rādhā’s outward appearance to be beautiful. Images of her physical qualities adorn every corner of Vrindavan.
But these verses confirm that Rādhā is not only beautiful, she is also the source of all beauty. She is both beautiful and she bestows beauty on others. If there is beauty, then Rādhā is at its root.
Any object we find beautiful, from the charm of the most delicate flower, to the wonder of the sun-rays at dawn, from the smile of an infant to the glow that flows from the eyes of the wise, traces its beauty back to Rādhā. Any object that gives pleasure, not only to the eyes, but to any of the senses may be called beautiful. The pleasure it brings, the happiness it causes, can be attributed to Rādhā.
The flow of beauty, this transfer, from the source to the object, from one beautiful thing to another, is a mystery. How does it happen that the splendid things of our world actually causes splendour, that the attractiveness of one thing causes the attractiveness of another, that rapture brings rapture, that happiness causes happiness?
There is, in the West, a long tradition of thinking about beauty. Most of it involves discussions about the proper criteria for considering a thing beautiful. Some identify beauty by the proportion, balance or symmetry of the thing. Others say that a beautiful thing is one corresponds to some model or ideal.
What all these Western approaches have in common is that both the criteria and the observer who applies them are external to the object. The judge of beauty is different than the judged. Beauty is not inherent in the thing, it is assigned to it.
This is how beauty is experienced in material consciousness. The beauty, the perfection, of the thing can only be experienced from outside. The enjoyer of the beauty is an external observer. The observer and the observed are two different positions. The thing and the experience of the thing will never be the same.
Spiritual consciousness is the realisation that beauty is internal, part of us, in our hearts, in our souls. So in spiritual consciousness, the criteria for beauty are also part of us. This because the soul that observes beauty, and truly experiences it as beauty, is the soul that is beauty.
Beauty does not appear in the material world, behind the doors of a museum, in a theatre, in a flower garden, or even in the meeting of two people. This is because the one who observes and the thing that is observed are the same Beauty does not happen outside of us; it happens inside us.
If spiritual experience is the intimate relation to our inner self, to our soul, then the experience of beauty is the experience of the soul, from the soul, to the soul
All beauty is the beauty of Rādhā, not because she is externally beautiful, but because she is the perfection of inner beauty.
Just as Rādhā’s beauty cannot be perceived outwardly, it remains hidden from those who view the world solely through the lens of science, detached from the spiritual currents of their own lives. The beauty of the world, and of the souls within it, is visible only to those with spiritual vision. It eludes anyone who does not recognise the soul.
And since Rādhā is pure soul, her beauty is nothing less than the soul seeing the soul. It is the beauty of every soul, every soul that sees itself by entering into its spiritual self, its svarūpa, its inner truth.
To see Rādhā’s beauty by looking inside ourselves is to see the divine and to realise the divine in ourselves.
The beauty of the world comes from within. Its full spiritual flavour emerges when we have first seen, with the eyes of our heart, in full devotion, the beauty of Rādhā