You have written: “Beauty is an expression, a form of Ananda.” In that case, is not Beauty itself part of the essence of the Divine, as are Ananda, Consciousness and Existence?1Sri Aurobindo
Letters of Sri Aurobindo
Volume 1. 1933-34
Fragment ID: 16698
1933-34
You have written: “Beauty is an expression, a form of Ananda.” In that case, is not Beauty itself part of the essence of the Divine, as are Ananda, Consciousness and Existence?1
If it is, should not one think that Love, Knowledge, Force, Light etc. are also expressions of Sachchidananda?
The word “expression” means only something that is manifested by the Ananda and of which Ananda is 
the essence. Love and Beauty are powers of Ananda as Light and Knowledge are of Consciousness. Force is inherent in Consciousness and may be called part of the Divine Essence. Ananda is always there even when Sachchidananda takes on an impersonal aspect or appears as the sole essential Existence; but Love needs a Lover and Beloved, Beauty needs a manifestation to show itself. So in the same way Consciousness is always there, but Knowledge needs a manifestation to be active, there must be a Knower and a Known. That is why the distinction is made between Ananda which is of the essence and Beauty which is a power or expression of Ananda in manifestation. These are of course philosophical distinctions necessary for the mind to think about the world and the Divine.
1 Here is the letter of Sri Aurobindo to a Sadhaka which led me to seek elaboration from him:
“Beauty is not the same thing as delight, but like Love it is an expression, a form of Ananda,– created by Ananda and composed of Ananda it conveys that delight to the mind of which it is made. Aesthetically, the delight takes the appearance of Rasa and the enjoyment of this Rasa is the mind’s and the vital s reaction to the perception of Beauty. The spiritual realisation has a sight, a perception, a feeling which is not that of the mind and vital; – it passes beyond the aesthetic limit, sees the universal beauty, sees behind the object what the eye cannot see, feels what the emotion of the heart cannot feel and passes beyond Rasa and Bhoga to pure Ananda,– a thing more deep, intense, rapturous than any mental or vital or any physical rasa reaction can be. It sees the One everywhere,– the Beloved everywhere, the original bliss of existence everywhere and all these can create an inexpressible Ananda of beauty,– the beauty of the One, the beauty of the Divine, the beauty of the Beloved, the beauty of the eternal Existence in things. It can see also the beauty of forms and objects, but with a seeing other than the mind’s, other than that of a limited physical vision – what was not beautiful to the eye becomes beautiful, what was beautiful to the eye wears now a greater marvellous and ineffable beauty. The spiritual realisation can bring the vision and the rapture of the All – Beautiful everywhere.”
26-10-35