18. Beauty Is Skin Deep; Grace Comes From Within

We do not know how to distinguish between beauty and grace.

Anyone can be beautiful, feel beautiful. We can learn to feel beautiful by watching other people and copying them or by fulfilling the imagination in our minds. Make-up, - the use of 'spare parts,' clothing and plastic surgery, can make us feel beautiful.

But grace is totally another thing. Grace, the highest form of beauty, has to rise from within. Nobody can teach us to be graceful. It rises from the fountain of well being that we have for our bodies, our minds, and ourselves. It originates in our acceptance and love of who we are.

Tulsidas, the composer of the great Hindu epic Ramayana, said of Sita, its heroine, 'When Sita entered her father's court, everyone stood up to pay respect to the princess.' Sita's father was emperor Janaka and his court included illustrious sages like Vasishta. It is said that even her father stood up in respect for this young princess! That is the power of grace.

We can develop grace if we can love deeply and completely. Many of us only know how to love our needs. We only know how to love a person when they obey us. We can only love something that is an extension of our ego. That is not love but slavery. True love arises from deep compassion.

One way to develop this love is by a beautiful meditation technique that can be followed every morning to awaken our Self awareness. We touch every point of our body with deep love first thing in the morning, even before we stir from our bed. We should do this as soon as we wake up. This allows the subtle body to settle into the gross physical body. The love from the subtle body transmits to the physical body.

Let us add friendlin ess in all our interactions at all levels. Let us learn to welcome and accept people and events as they happen. Also, let us welcome and accept our own mind, body and spirit as they are.

There is no difference between being graceful and being blissful. The choice to be in this state is yours.

If we wish to be blissful, we will make no comparisons and experience no regret. We will plan nothing and anticipate nothing. Let us just live in the love of the present. Let us learn to love the present and all of our experience now. Let us learn to live in nithyananda- eternal bliss.