Beauty is skin deep — which is fine

We all get drawn to physical beauty first, which then whets our appetite to explore the soul

Beauty is only skin deep. Which is deliciously fine. So it may be skin deep, but so is my sight. Let me make a frank admission. We all get drawn to the form first, which then whets our appetite to explore the soul. The puritans, for centuries, have been sabotaging the human obsession with beauty of countenance and physical form, underscoring instead the purity of soul. Truth is, visible beauty, in every facet of creation is our first tryst with the divine artistry. The beauty in this world has to be feasted on first before being understood. No shame, hence, in being an epicurean, a hedonist. Of the female form, there is nothing more exciting than the shimmery, doe-eyed, dark gaze. A close second would be the fragrant curls flirting with the wind. Not far behind are the luscious lips, pink rose petals on their own or embers if wearing red.

Plato got it wrong for sure. He believed every idea or object in our world is an imperfect copy of something sublime and permanent in another universe, heaven perhaps, and governed by a heavenly force. His Theory of Forms was perhaps the earliest, even if unwitting reference to the existence of multiple universes. He went on to declare that perfect Love is actually the meeting of the minds without any physical contact or intimacy. Platonic love. Sigh. Now he may have given the world the monumental Republic, philosophising the grand notions of a just city-state and a just man and justice itself. But he got it all wrong with Platonic love. Even heaven promises nymphs that are beautiful in form and ready to please the righteous in every way.

Pythagoras, the Greek philosopher, was perhaps the first in the West to come up with a theory of beauty. He saw a strong connection between mathematics and beauty. Symmetry and proportion were equated with beauty and objects proportioned according to the Golden Ratio seemed more attractive. Aristotle’s doctrine of ‘Golden Mean’ saw a relationship between beauty and virtue, arguing that “virtue aims at the beautiful”. The Age of Reason saw a heightened interest by poets in the nature of beauty. Keats declared in his “Ode on a Grecian Urn”: “Beauty is truth, truth beauty — that is all/ Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.”

God ordained us to see, feel, hear, smell, touch and then understand. In one square inch of our hand we have nine feet of blood vessels, 600 pain sensors, 9,000 nerve endings, 36 heat sensors and 75 pressure sensors. What does that say? Our bodies are designed to draw in a deluge of sensory information which is then processed into actions and perspectives. Let’s be honest. Humanity has since time immemorial placed a premium on outward beauty. From Hollywood to Bollywood to the world of fashion, it is the appearance of the protagonists that makes those worlds go round. Feminists may find my contention chauvinistic and may scream objectification. But can you possibly imagine Casablanca without the ethereal Ingrid Bergman or for that matter, Gone with the Wind without the mystifyingly beautiful Vivian Leigh as Scarlett O’ Hara or, The Roman Holiday without the stunningly wispy Audrey Hepburn?

And I have not even begun to talk about our favourite poets. From Faiz to Faraz to Josh, poetry overflows with explicit references to the pleasing countenance of the beloved. Some even go on to graphically describe the form of the beloved, the best exponent of which remains the inimitable Josh Maleehabadi. His magnum opus, Yadon Kee Baraat, chronicles his life experiences, his dalliances and love affairs with such flair and exquisiteness that the lines blur between prose and poetry. Pages and pages devoted to intimate descriptions of the appearance of people, seasons, food and how these arouse and shape human emotions. The poetic obsession with and odes to form and beauty cut across cultures, with Keats and Frost and Thomas Hardy high on the same drug. Faiz Ahmed Faiz put it so beautifully: “Of fragrance and colour, beauty and goodness/ The metaphors all began and ended in you.”

Perhaps, the human love for beauty is a divine gift and needs to be embraced and thanked for. A sense of sublime balance pervades this universe which hints at a supremely aesthetic God. He urges us all to see his world and ponder the beauty and balance all around. Cheers to all the beautiful faces.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 5^th, 2016.

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