Transient Beauty

Dr. Rajesh Bhola

India

Mar 08, 2013

The Scriptures aptly say, “People’s beauty is like a flower in the field. It blossoms, then slowly withers and  fades away.” Like a passing shadow, that soon grows weaker as we age... and then disappears. Transience is the law of nature.

Beauty withers away with time so fast
Soon everything so silently becomes past
From glow to wrinkles, impact of time is cast

All is transient in His universe so vast

Finally so calmly we resign our breath at last.

This joy and beauty of life,alas, must end. Keats, the noted Romantic poet, writes: 

“Joy whose hand is ever at his lips/Bidding adieu”

It is from this transience that melancholy, so very typical of his poems, originates: melancholy, he says, “Dwells with beauty / beauty that must die”.

This earth is replete with many beautiful living beings, though woman is regarded by all the creative writers, artists, sculptors and painters as the most perfect type of beauty on earth. Nature created her form as an exquisite piece of perfection. The earth gives us no form more perfect, no contours more symmetrical, no style more chaste, no movements more graceful, and no finish more complete. This form is most perfect and symmetrical in the days of youth– but that outer beauty is short lived. 

Just like love that has nothing but external beauty to sustain it, soon withers away. Beyond that form of outer beauty is the beauty of the soul and character – which outlives a pretty face. That true beauty has substance, and a spirit. It is the beauty of expression. It wreathes the countenance of every doer of good; it adorns every honest face; it shines in a virtuous life; it moulds the hands of charity; it sweetens the voice of sympathy; it sparkles on the brow of wisdom; it flashes in the eye of love; it breathes in the spirit of piety. This is the capacity of beauty that God has given to the human soul, and this is the beauty that is placed within the reach of all – so that we may all be beautiful. Though our forms may not be comely, and our features not the prettiest, our spirits may be beautiful. And this inward beauty always shines through. A beautiful heart will flash in the eye; a lovely soul will glow in the face; a sweet spirit will tune the voice, and wreathe the countenance in charm. The beauty inside has the power to melt the hardest heart.

The world focuses on what people look like on the outside; God focuses on what people look like on the inside. Do you put more time and effort on being pretty on the outside, or the inside?  While there may be nothing wrong with wanting to look pretty, we need to make sure that there is a balance. God would rather see us work on becoming drop-dead gorgeous on the inside!

Many people are truly beautiful for the love and the positive difference they make in the lives of the people they meet. These inner beauties are a blessing to the people around them. Loving parents are beautiful for all the blessings and love they shower on their children. But so is a person guiding a blind man across a busy street; a young man giving up his seat for an elderly woman; an aunt bringing her niece for a medical appointment. When we see someone helping others, that person—who may 'look average’—becomes more beautiful in our eyes. God has created us humans, but delegated the task of our inner grooming to ourselves. We may have no control on how we look, or the transience of human life, but we surely can take good care of what we have inside. Let us start grooming our inner self. Let us spend time reflecting, praying and learning how to be better people. 

Dr. Rajesh Bhola is President of Spastic Society of Gurgaon and is working for the cause of children with autism, cerebral palsy, mental retardation and multiple disabilities for more  than 20 years.

Source: http://www.fridaygurgaon.com/news/3015-transient-beauty.html