Atma Soundaryam
Nina Davuluri has been adjudged the Miss America, few days back. Anyone, who saw the picture of crowning her, in the newspapers next day, would not have believed that the woman, who is not at all looking beautiful, was adjudged the Miss America. I even heard people commenting that how come this girl came out winner, when there are so many beautiful women are in the fray. The judges, while adjudicating, commented that beauty of the heart or "Atma Soundarya" is greater than the physical beauty.
As a common man, I believe, this is a lesson we all have to learn, particularly younger generations of today. The market size of the Indian Cosmetic Industry is estimated to be around 10,000 crores and is likely to touch 15,000 crores by 2014. Today everyone is conscious of their physical beauty and are not hesitating to spend any amount of money for maintaining that. I keep hearing that what they have been saying in advertisements is all lies and the product doesn't give any result. yet they continue to buy those products, which they believe have not been useful in enhancing their beauty. But no effort is being made to increase the beauty of their heart or "Atma Soundarya", which can be attained without spending any money, which can even win them the crown of Miss America.
Attaining Atma Soundarya, doen't necessarily requires praying God, though it is also a way. Purity of thought, positive thinking, respect towards others, not intending any harm to others, a little bit of meditation and clear and firm eye on your goal are some of the things that can evolve and improve Atma Soundarya and will not involve any expenditure. Moreover, physical beauty may give glow to your face, but Atma Soundarya brings grace to your personality, which is eternal and can even get the Miss America crown for a Non-American.
Rightly said. Now cosmetic companies started luring men also to apply creams with double benefits (??) they look fair and girls will run after him. Next possible extention to this bussiness is our heros start applying lipstick and nail polish also to look handsome and lure the girls.
ReplyDeletesome one rightly said that, if the fairness cream has power to change the skin color, let us test it by applying the same to a buffelow and see that whether it turns white or not.
Let us pray the GOD to bless the public who are running after external fairness with commen sense and Atma Soundarya.
Well said.. the points listed around Atma Soundarya are very true.. the thing is that it takes a bit of practice and perseverance to attain that... people want quick results and they are getting lured into these. At the same time, the bahya soundarya also gives a bit of edge sometimes. Wearing a well-ironed shirt/sari will give that extra aura around us that improves our mood as well. However, it shall be kept at that and should not be allowed to rule us.
ReplyDeleteTotally agree.
ReplyDeleteBut let's set aside the all-important "Atma Soundaryam" that everyone should definitely seek for just a minute. Let us talk about physical beauty. The form. The superficial you. Why do people not find Nina Davuluri beautiful even in a superficial way? We all unknowingly subscribe to society's notions of "beauty", for example, slim, fair, tall etc. This is a sickness that is rampant among Indians and is causing a lot of damage to young minds. They suffer from body image issues and more often than not, women especially wish they looked like someone else while they have a perfectly healthy and fully functional body. There is also a huge gender bias induced by our patriarchal system. Over-weight women are often made to feel more guilty about their bodies than their male counterparts. Matrimonial sites rarely forget to mention "fair", "slim" and not to mention "homely" (I have no idea what they mean by that. People use it like it's a flattering term.). Can a woman ask for a homely husband? What would be the typical Indian male's reaction to that?
Anyway, I digress. We started out talking about skewed notions about physical beauty and body image, and it naturally took course towards gender inequality. This is just a rant. But I hope it presents itself as fodder for another blockbuster post from you!