A beautiful incident in Rabindranath Tagore's life....

He used to on his houseboat go deep into the rivers in the lonely silences of the forest. One full moon night, he was on his houseboat reading a book on beauty by a great philosopher... and they all start with great enthusiasm, as if they are going to define. And as you go deeper into the book the enthusiasm starts disappearing and you can start feeling their embarrassment that they have taken on a task which is intrinsically impossible. And as he closed the book, coming to the conclusion that beauty is indefinable.... He was reading the book in the candlelight, and because of the candlelight, the light of the moon had not entered through the windows of his cabin. He blew out the candle, he was going to bed, and suddenly from everywhere the moonlight came in, dancing.

He said, "My God, what a fool I am. Beauty is standing at the door, almost knocking! I am blinded by a small candle, and I am so much absorbed in reading the book -- which is nothing but empty words, which leads nowhere but into the desert of indefinability."

He opened all the windows, all the doors, and came out on the deck of the boat. He had seen many beautiful nights, many beautiful full moons, but he had never seen such beauty, such silence. On the river, it was all silver of the moon. He remained silent, almost moonstruck.

In many languages the word `moonstruck' means madman. And certainly if you open your heart to the moon, it is maddening; it is so immensely beautiful that your mind stops its chattering -- you fall into a silence which we call meditation.

He wrote in his diary that night, "The beauty can be seen, can be felt, can be experienced; it can drive you mad, but you cannot define it. And I decide from today not to read any book which is an effort to define beauty, because no book can do it."