Beauty is not in the face; beauty is a light in the heart.” ~ Kahlil Gibran
The society we live in has conditioned us to giving so much importance to a way a person looks, dresses up, presents himself/herself. That is outer beauty which is not going to last forever. People get so influenced by external factors – an ad they see in the papers for a new outfit, or their favorite model/actor displaying the latest in fashion or simply peer pressure.
Wearing the coolest watch or owning the latest gadget, wearing a mask of creams, scents, lotions to fit in what the society defines as ‘beautiful’.
Advertisements don’t try to get us to buy a product so that we will be better people; they sell products because we can be beautiful if we own them. This variably creates a false facade built on greed, money and ego.
Outer beauty by itself is a tiny tiny aspect of our ‘Divine Nature’. Its just a temporary illusion of showing the world ‘how cool you are’ and to satisfy that desire of gaining some attention. Everyone is beautiful in their own way, which we fail to see many times. I have often seen people indifferent to others who don’t dress like them, or don’t follow the ‘norm’ or are just different.
For example – In India there was an ad campaign on skin lightning creams that portrayed dark-complexioned women as depressed with low self-esteem. The campaign was heavily criticized for being insensitive and unethical.
But that did not stop people, who fell for this ridiculous bias, to buy the products to transform their natural skin colour. To challenge this unrealistic ad, there is another ongoing campaign called ‘Dark is Beautiful‘ that is against the toxic belief that a person’s worth is measured by the fairness of their skin.
I remember my mother use to keep telling me this during my teenage years, when I had fallen into this materialistic trap of decorating the outer self.
She asked me, “What about dressing up the soul? The time spent in front of the mirror, use that time to do something for the inner self.” I just ignored it at that time, but it perhaps resided at a subconscious level. Now after many years, I have realised what she truly meant.
The real beauty lies within and not how much you flaunt your outer self in public. What is the soul?
Probably hard to define, its not something you see, but you feel. It forms the fabric of your being, it is where magic resides! The soul has the answers to the questions you seek, but only if you care to listen. Imagine seeing an ad where simply dressing up like a celebrity is ridiculed and it guides viewers to question their false beliefs. That is hard to imagine!
Remove the mask and look within, inner beauty can be created from within. You come across people who exude immense joy, give least importance to their appearance, have renounced the consumerist attitude, but are still happy and beautiful. This thinking and belief reflects on the person’s outer beauty as well, radiating positive energy and a healthy outlook to life.
If you feel beautiful and are content about it, then you will definitely look beautiful outside. Deep down we all know that appearance is rarely going to lead us to happiness, wisdom and Truth!
Changing times like these require change in attitude and a deeper understanding of how these corporations/media work, they only play with the human mind and paint a false picture to satisfy their greed.
I found beautiful words attributed to Audrey Hepburn and crafted by Sam Levenson, sums up the post –
“For attractive lips, speak words of kindness. For lovely eyes, seek out the good in people. For a slim figure, share your food with the hungry. For beautiful hair, let a child run his fingers through it once a day. For poise, walk with the knowledge that you will never walk alone.”
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