AUM
BEAUTY ATTRACTS
BEAUTY DISTRACTS
By
Brigadier Chitranjan Sawant,VSM
“ A thing of beauty is a joy for
ever; its loveliness increases, it will never pass into nothingness”, so wrote
John Keats the 19th century English romantic poet. How true he was and how pragmatic his philosophy of
life was. I have yet to come across a man or a woman who would like to write a
note of dissent to the pronouncement of Keats. We read his poetry time and
again and gain always, never lose, not even a night’s sleep. One may see the
face of a pretty woman and ponder over her beauty for a long time to come. At
the end of the game, the appreciator may lose but he will never regret the
beautiful experience.
Lives there a man so prosaic who
would never appreciate the poetic depth of the line: a thing of beauty is a joy
forever? I think not. Indeed beauty attracts. In some cases the attraction may
last forever. In other cases an appreciation of an object of beauty would be
just ephemeral. Of course, it depends on the persons concerned and also on the
circumstances.
We may not lose sight of the other
side of the coin. Beauty distracts too. Not long ago in a public school of
repute an extraordinarily beautiful woman was teaching the higher secondary
class English Romantic Poetry. What a coincidence. The lesson was on John Keats
and the poem happened to be on Beauty and Joy and their relationship. As she
read with great aplomb “ A thing of beauty is a joy forever, its loveliness
increases, it will never pass into nothingness”, a male teenager almost
swooned. On being revived he was truthful enough to confess the beautiful
English teacher was such a great distraction that he found it hard to
concentrate on the lesson and her teaching. He was frank enough to say so in so
many words that the beauty of the English teacher was a great distraction.
Indeed the pretty woman felt flattered. The matter was left at that as it
tickled everyone present there.
When one goes over the old times in
one’s life one finds that the teenage period of life happened to be of both
attraction and distraction. The common denominator indeed was Beauty. At the
drop of a hat a teenager falls in love with a pretty girl and is prepared to do
anything, just anything for the new found love. In some cases it may be just
infatuation that blows away with the passing years. In a case or two it may be
just calf love when neither the boy nor the girl understands the meaning of
beauty and its relationship with love. Nevertheless a piece of sane advice by a
well wisher is not taken in the right spirit. Thus the distraction caused by
skin deep beauty may end in a disaster affecting limb or life.
At the same time we should not be
oblivious of the fact that beauty may attract an admirer leading to real love
that may last a lifetime. A believer in the transmigration of soul may swear by
the love born of beauty and long for the continuation of the relationship life
after life for seven generations. Indeed the soul is eternal and does not perish
with the mundane body. The cycle of birth, death and rebirth goes on and on
until a blessed soul attains Moksha or Nirvana.
If the beauty was the foundation of
the long lasting love, will the soul be reborn in a body that has an equally
beautiful face. It is a question that one may find hard to answer. Going back
to the beautiful person with a beautiful face, one finds that many wars were
fought for beautiful faces. Helen of Troy had the reputation of having a face
that launched a thousand ships to win her over and possess her forever. Moving
from the Greek beauties for whom many battles were fought; some won and some
lost, let us come nearer home, to our own Bharat.
The love tales of Prithviraj and
Samyukta are told and retold in ballads in the village chaupal year after year.
Prithviraj Raso bears a testimony to the epic battles that the great king of
Delhi fought against Jai Chand, king of Kannauj to win over princess Samyukta,
an epitome of beauty both internal and external. King Prithviraj Chauhan had
his way and Samyukta was his forever but the cost in terms of human lives lost
was colossal. A brave and chivalrous warrior like Prithviraj Chauhan eventually
lost his kingdom to a foreign invading chieftain, notwithstanding the patriotic
fervor of his men who bore arms for him, fought bravely and made the supreme
sacrifice for the king and the country. Nevertheless it was the beauty factor
that caused the national disaster.
The beauty of Queen Padmini of Chittor
was fabulous. Her blue blood that flew in her veins was unmistakable. But the
distraction that the beauty of Queen Padmini caused in the administration of
fiefdom of Chittor and attracted the attack by the Sultan of Delhi caused loss
of innumerable lives on both sides. The Rajputs fought and perished for the
honour of their king, country and queen Padmini. The invading hordes were
commanded and driven by the lust of the ruler of Delhi. The honorable queen
performed Sati, perished in fire to save her honour and the invaders got
nothing but ashes. Let us salute brave Padmini for her commitment to her Dharma
that led to her sacrifice at the altar of National Honour.
Turning leaves of books of history of
Bharat and other countries, one finds many an episode where Beauty attracted,
beauty distracted, beauty led to victory and beauty led to disaster. All said
and done, one cannot but agree with the great English Romantic poet, John Keats
and sing in rhythm the everlasting line:
A THING OF BEAUTY IS A JOY FOREVER,
ITS LOVELINESS
INCREASES, IT WILL NEVER PASS INTO NOTHINGNESS.”
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