‘Real Beauty’

A few years ago, I read a news item
that the sense of beauty in Indian men’s perception is not mature enough! It
was in the context of the ‘vital statistics’ of a woman’s figure, her complexion
and other criteria.

I wondered as to who are the
Americans or Europeans to dictate the standards of beauty. After all, the
beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder –as rightly said by an Urdu ‘Shayar’
–

“Kubsoorti dekhnewale ke dilme hoti
hai”

There is a story of Jesus Christ.
His mother went to his school a little before the school recess. She was in a
hurry; so she handed over the tiffin to another lady waiting to give tiffin to
her child. Jesus’s mother requested her to hand over the tiffin box to Jesus.
The lady said she did not know Jesus. The mother said when the children would
come out, the most beautiful child would be Jesus. The lady agreed.

Obviously, the lady handed over the
tiffin to her own son!

This is a universal truth. ‘Beauty’
– like many other qualities is a relative and subjective term. It varies from
viewer to viewer.

Once upon a time, there was a great
quarrel between Shree Laxmidevi – Lord Vishnu’s wife – Goddess of
riches and Shree Shanidev (God of planet Saturn who is known to trouble
the people for a period of seven and a half years – called sade sati).
The dispute was as to who between them looks more beautiful.

About the beauty of Goddess
Laxmi, all of us know well. But Saturn as a planet also looks very nice –
with the three illuminating rings around him. The dispute was not getting
resolved. Fortunately, there was no judicial system like it is of today.
Otherwise, the litigation could have continued for thousands of years; and
perhaps even Laxmiji would not have afforded the lawyers’ fees!

When they were arguing between
themselves at the top of their voice, Shree Naradmuni was passing by. He
heard it, saw them and tried to escape from there. He smelt that he was in
trouble!

Laxmiji and Shaniji
saw Naradji and called him close. They referred the dispute to his sole
Arbitration. He was not like present arbitrators and being a Sanyasi,
had no greed for money! At the same time, he wanted to avoid the embarrassing
‘assignment’ since he could not afford the frown of either! But despite his
request, and the pretext of ‘hurry,’ they would not let him go.

After all, Narad
was the son of Lord Brahma – and had extraordinary intelligence. He
thought of an idea. He asked both of them to walk upto a distant tree and come
back. They were wild. They said – “Naradji, we are asking you to decide who
between us is more beautiful and you are asking us to walk to the tree?”. But
they had no choice as the arbitrator had certain powers!

They walked reluctantly and
returned.

“No, No, No, No, No, No!” said Naradji;
“I didn’t see properly. You should not have anger on your faces. It mars the
beauty! Please do it again”. Poor Laxmiji and Shaniji were
furious in their minds; but could not express their displeasure before him.
They performed the ‘walking’ act again.

Naradji smiled and said
“yes, yes! Now I realised. While walking away from here, Shanidev looked
more beautiful and while coming back from the tree, Laxmiji was more
beautiful!

So friends, beauty lies in your
perception; your mood and your expectations!