For example, if I’m wearing my shoes and I see or feel the Divine in it, would I not feel like I’m disrespecting Him? I don’t know how these things work, but I’ve always wondered whether we actually see the Divine in everything.
I also have a second question. Why is wearing makeup seen as bad here in the Ashram? I’ve always worn makeup. My mother used to work in the beauty industry, so this has been a normal part of my life. I’ve been told that I shouldn’t wear makeup because the Mother has said that there is great beauty in simplicity. However, if it is so bad, then why did the Mother also wear makeup? I understand that it may make one conceited, but that could be the case with anything else, including wearing simple clothes. As long as I am not doing it with a prideful attitude and offering it to Her, it shouldn’t be harmful, right?
Seeing the Divine in everything makes us instinctively conscious in our dealing with everything. It is not about being sacred, but everything carrying the Divine within it. It means dealing with everything, every object, with care and consciousness. Even the human body and its different parts have to be all dealt with in the same way since the Divine is in everything. The actual experience, in fact, makes you much more conscious but also intimate and personal with these everyday objects.
As to makeup, The Mother never said anything against it, though there were disciples who couldn’t understand the Mother using it at times! It is still the old idea of shunning beauty in the material world, of confusing simplicity with poverty. Best is not to pay attention to these remarks, which are nothing else but part of a convention that refuses to see the Divine in the material world.
Affectionately,
Alok Da
