Acharya Tulsi
The true identity of a man is not known by his physical appearance, or by his wealth and grandeur, or by his clothes and ornaments, or by his palatial mansions. His own life is his true identity; his greatest wealth is his character. His best introduction is his conduct. A man is known by his thought, and action. Those whose behaviour is not good, whose mind is not at peace, and whose voice is not sweet, however prepossessing in appearance they may be, can never really win another's love. To be beautiful is one thing; to try to appear to be beautiful quite another.
Nobody can tell why man is so much attracted by artificial beauty. Just as the will to live is the fundamental instinct of all living beings, similarly, the desire for beauty is man’s primordial instinct. So it seems at least. Birds and animals are possessed of natural beauty; they seek no other adornment. May be the question of beauty and ugliness does not occur to them at all. But man is much more particular in this regard.
Some people want to appear to be especially attractive. Perhaps women more than men. That is, most women are active participants in the contest for artificial beauty. Even women possessed of great natural beauty labour under the illusion of appearing to be still more beautiful through the use of cosmetics. The fact is that the artificiality of the beauty-aids covers the natural charm and tends to turn it into ugliness.
On the one hand, we are faced with a critical financial condition and increasing poverty and starvation, on the other hand we are spending a tremendous amount of money on cosmetics. From the point-of-view of both physical and economic health, a ban on the import of artificial beauty—aids can be helpful in resolving many problems. The imposition of the ban can be highly appreciated on sociological grounds, but from the spiritual point-of-view, no human proclivity can be rooted out until man’s mind is transformed. Articles which are now bought and sold in the open market do not cease to be available after they are prescribed. New ways are quickly found to evade the ban. Unless there is a fundamental change in man himself, he will resort to all kinds of trickery to gratify his desire. What is required is that people be made fully aware of the whole truth about cosmetics, and then they will of themselves avoid all beauty-aids.
While the country is burdened with many physical and financial hardships on account of the widespread use of cosmetics, the spiritual values, too, are much debased on that account. It will be worthwhile here to consider the use of beauty-aids in the perspective of non-violence. People should know how the curses of a great many innocent and dumb animals and birds are inevitably mixed in the makeup aids. the monkeys, the rabbits, the rats, the badgers, the cats, the swine, and the beavers—if people can be made to hear the groans of any of these animals who are ruthlessly killed to provide materials for the production of beauty-aids, no one would be inclined to forsake their humanity for the sake of appearing to be more attractive. Artificial beauty-aids are employed to make oneself to be more beautiful, or in other words to exhibit one‘s. It is an outcome of the stupidity of accepting and upgrading an imported culture. '
Believe it or not, but it is true that a delicate animal like the badger, when given a beating with a stick, secretes out of its body a fluid, which after refinement is sold in the form of a scent. The comfort and gratification of a few prove fatal for thousands of badgers. The skin stripped from a live snake, is used in the production of fashionable garments. A great many animals with soft and woolly hair are brutally killed to make one woolly jacket or cap. Many innocent creatures such as the rabbits are blinded in trials conducted by the shampoo manufacturers. The eyes and the heart of other animals are pulverised and used in the manufacture of certain products. It would be surprising if the humane and the religious—minded are not shocked at such brutalities.
If people with a scientific background, collect such facts and bring them to the notice of the public, it might help to change people's outlook. It is quite possible that millions of people are quite ignorant of the atrocities perpetrated in the name of cosmetics and fashionable articles. In the face of such ignorance, it would be idle to expect any change in them. If people with a scientific background take up this challenge and create the right kind of environment and evolve harmless substitutes for articles whose manufacture involves violence, the craze for the most modern make-up aids may be arrested. This evil may also be curbed by awakening people’s faith in the beauty of character and by its proper evaluation. An effort in that direction is urgently called for.
