Beauty of body, I mean, — those who have perfectly sculpted and chiseled features — is highly appreciated by everyone. From time immemorial, pills, potions and fashions have been used to increase one’s looks and win attention for in many professions, it is very necessary and welcomed.
There are a good number of people who are on the lookout for inner beauty. Some may ask — what is inner beauty? ‘Inner beauty’ is like helping others without looking for reward; flashing a smile that beckons peace and melts hostility. Inner beauty is like a flame in the glass. You don’t look at the glass, but you see the light inside it. But when the inner brightness is not lit there is nothing to see except the glass.
A person may be beautiful or may not be so great looking; unhealthy eating habits distort the outer body and horrible emotions and negative thoughts deform the inner soul. Also, what is inside reflects on the outside through the behaviour of the individual.
Outer beauty doesn’t mean inside cruel; and outer plain features don’t stand for inside loveliness and vice versa e.g. A person may be attractive outwardly but graceless on the inside. Alexander the Great had a very handsome body but he killed millions of people, just to fulfill his ego that he is the world conqueror. Audrey Hepburn, Hollywood actress, had outward and inward beauty. She said “The beauty of a woman is not in the clothes she wears or the figure that she carries. True beauty in a woman is reflected in her soul.”
Mother Teresa possessed no features of classic beauty. In her, final years of life on this good earth, her face was crisscrossed with wrinkles, her body bent and her hands knotty. Yet the impression she created was invariably one of beauty.
Adolph Hitler valued the superiority of the German race and wanted power above everything else, and that importance created negative thoughts in him. He instigated the Second World War and the mass execution of millions of people. His actions brought immeasurable destruction and a shameful end to his own life. He neither had outer good looks nor radiated inner beauty.
So, we see, the inner beauty of a person lies in the light within.
Many say that outer and inner beauty is entirely in the hands of the individual. According to them outer beauty can be attained by plastic surgery. Thus, one can have an attractive face, attractive eyes, changed skin; changed shape. In order to attain inward beauty a different kind of surgery is necessary. It can be acquired by self discipline — fighting the tendency to harp on negative thoughts of doing harm to others and purifying it with positive ideas by wishing mercy for friends and enemies.
Scott Westerfield said, “What you do, what you think makes you beautiful and that is the truth.” But people with Inner beauty “have to be cautious because some are specialised in causing sorrow to them”. Therefore, one has to be alert to the plan of such people. Secondly, if we give undue importance to outward looks and neglect inner beauty, we confuse values with form.
Looking good is good, but being good is better.
