The Flawed Idea

Let us ponder and explore the standard of women beauty today.
From lipstick, to foundation, to eye-shadow, and hairspray.
The aspirations to look lighter, “prettier”, and blemish-free.
Something struck me as a lack of awareness of spiritual reality.

When society judges a woman, it’s about their appearance.
Our values and actions regarding the double standard lack coherence.
We use intelligence to attribute men, but we attribute women by their look.
We’re hypocritical because we look at a cover, and proceed to judge the book.

Now, in Sikhi, we are told to focus and strengthen the inner soul.
By repeating his Divine name, we tame our desires with mind control.
But if we focus on beauty, what are we really doing?
If we apply makeup and get piercings, what ideology are we pursuing?

That ideology is about decorating the body, when the jewel is inside.
That ideology is about increasing self-esteem to feel temporarily dignified.
That ideology is about “trimming” the beauty, “powdering” future ashes, “polishing” what is already pure, “cutting” a ribbon of divine love, “tweaking” a perfect creation, and simultaneously “shaping” our fate.

What if we replaced this ideology, with the wisdom of our Guru’s.
The body was never meant for such things, as we continue to misuse.
This body was a vessel for which beauty lied within.
The soul was the aspiration for enhancement, not the skin.

It’s so much easier to make the outside more appealing.
We can hire individuals or to attract others, we might get more revealing.
But that’s why I adore a true Kaur, because her personality wasn’t easy.
Her strength, her inner contentment, her detachment…
Approaching her to talk, will get me quite queasy.

Now, if we followed Gurbani…

We’d perform similar actions we do today with a different focus.
We’d “shave” our ego off,
We’d “tweak” our personalities,
We’d “curl” our tongues from impure speech,
We’d “wax” our soul, not our legs for the beach,
We’d “trim” time spent on materialism,
We’d “shape” our destinies, as this is truthful spiritual activism.

Now, I know I am not a female, and “men are lucky”.
“They don’t have to do what we do”, and they never feel “yucky”.
Now here’s some perspective for you:

I treated my dastaar as a crown, and other girls treated it like a towel.
Women wouldn’t talk to me because they thought my language was “growl”.
When my beard came in, I felt like a millionaire!
Until those same girls asked me if what was on my face was pubic hair.

Gursikh men get attacked more and get mistaken for Osama.
But no fret, I just remember the wise words of Dalai Lama.
“In the practice of tolerance, one’s enemy is the best teacher”.
Ignorance, doubt, and prejudice are my preachers.

Most girls and guys in this day and age cut their hair for other guys and girls.
They settle for mere shells and neglect the internal pearls.
My turban, beard, and hair are signs of respect to my Gurus.
Women watched their children get dropped onto spears, as their blood oozed.

Those women repeated Waheguru, they did not give up their belief.
They sacrificed for Sikhi, they did not allow that to become grief.
This is love, strength, and sacrifice. This is the result of inner beauty.
No attachment, no grief, only faith remained. This was their fiduciary duty.

And lo and behold:
We were the beneficiaries, and here we are giving into the same society.
We resulted in anxiety and notoriety, from what we thought was propriety.
It can be argued that “so what? I like how I look, it makes me happy”!
The truth is, your ego is what’s happy, not your soul.