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| Beauty is young - always! |
One
of my favourite writers, Franz Kafka, said that the young people are happy
because they have the ability to see beauty. “Anyone who keeps the ability to
see beauty never grows old,” he added.
I
was always an admirer of beauty. The only problem was that some self-appointed
custodians of morality, during my youth, thought that my concept of beauty was
too gynocentric and hence sinful. Like most members of their species, these
custodians were very religious people. Moreover, in my case, they happened to
be all Christians.
Woman
is a perversion, according to Christian theology. She was the cause of mankind’s
eviction from the biblical Paradise. Even centuries could not wash away her
guilt and so Saint Paul would advise Timothy (2:12) never to let a woman teach
or have authority over a man. “She must be silent.” Nothing less.
My
admiration of feminine beauty was associated with my own perversions by the
moralists in my life. I don’t deny that I had a fair share of perversions
though I always thought that my aesthetics was a natural principle. If a young
man is not drawn to the charms of a beautiful young woman, he should be checked
for perversion.
Well,
I outgrew that aesthetics as time passed. That’s also a natural principle, I
think. When it comes to nature, however, you can never be too sure. The fearfully
symmetrical tiger
of William Blake brutally assaulting a graceful gazelle whose twin fawns find
their biblical analogy in the breasts
of the wise Solomon’s beloved is also obeying a natural principle. I was no
tiger anyway and kept my aesthetics to myself. I didn’t even dare to write
poems like Solomon about female organs more innocuous than breasts.
I
was more fond of smiles, in fact. Today, as a man in the autumn of his life,
having seen plenty of life’s seductions and addictions, I still remain a lover
of smiles. If you have seen smiles that come genuinely from the heart, you’ll
understand my aesthetics easily.
Of
course, I admire all other forms of beauty too. I love flowers, for example,
though they become metaphors for evanescence in the Bible. Prophet Isiah, for
instance, compared the littleness of his people’s faith to “the flowers of the
field.” I love rivers and mountains, literature and philosophy, the Taj Mahal in
Agra and the St Paul’s Cathedral in London. I love all things beautiful.
Beauty
has a heavenly grace. It refreshes our souls as nothing else can if only we
learn to let it do its job. I would dare to paraphrase a verse from the Rig-Veda:
“Let beauty come to us from every side.”
(1-89-i)
You
will remain forever young if you let that happen to you!
Good to go through your philosophy and perspectives.
ReplyDeleteGlad to hear that.
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