The Destiny of Flesh

Everyday I see her nursing her body and everyday I ask my mind if that has anything to do with the after-life. I stand wonderstruck at her beauty-making.

She paints her face like statues using a brush. And this business is not once in her life; it is repeated every morning and it seems even more important than her breakfast.

With the climate change, I agree to say, the weather around has changed drastically. I see every reason for every human being who applies vaseline on their faces as these oils help keep one's skin soft and moist. I have always seen this a need. If this is a need, what's that it is luxurious and not necessarily needed?

The luxurious acts are: Polishing her nails, shaving eye brows; darkening and streamlining, applying lipsticks, drawing a blue line beneath her eyes etc. I am an appreciator of natural beauty and Bhutanese women are, unlike others, exceptionally beautiful. They have a natural beauty and this beauty cannot be unseen by any human eye in the world.

If someone is endowed with such a natural grandeur, why do one need to add up synthetically? Women, as far as I am concerned, seem like witches when they have a red mouth with a blackened eyes. I feel a part of identity also being hidden. A friend of mine had come one day, applying all the colours she had and a modern women possessed, to the office. I failed to recognise her and had walked past when she called me infuriatingly.

Looking deep and listening to the familiar voice, I wondered what the hell the night before brought her. She seemed like an alien being—someone from an unknown world. Forgetting all these, I sat beside her and started talking about the ultimate destiny of human flesh and the uselessness of beauty-making.

She suddenly stood up to my surprise to tell me about how necessity is it for a woman to look sexy. I said “You're more sexy yesterday than today.”

“Do not move your lips any more; you may get a wife like me,” she disappeared like a cloud.

Is it true that we always get something we hate? Let it be, if it is. If not I will have a better life. What ever may be, I wouldn't mind so far as my words are mirroring the truth of life. And the truth of life is to end one day; be it a powerful King or a prolific beggar. The destiny is same for all whether you are beautiful or ugly. We would be consumed by the same worms and decay the very next day we stop breathing.

If beauty-making has something to do with after-life, I would have pursued it. But Lord Buddha never left a word—or regretfully forgot?—about it in his world. He did not command us anything about physical beauty. He rather instructed us to concentrate more on inner beauty as this is the only thread that connects us with the higher realms.

Human life is as short a life span of a butter lamp. And in this short life, we have got so much to do. We cannot afford to waste our precious time in all these seemingly important duties. The greater role of a human being should never be forgotten and neglected. Knowing the subject in depth enriches one's understanding of the entire system of work. So one must go forward focussing on one's goals rather than getting entangled in the web of unworthy businesses. At the end, nothing such would benefit.

What is the use of nursing one's body if it is destined to decay one day and become a voracious food for the drooling dogs and hungry worms? What is the need for one to look sexy through such beauty-makings if one is not at all a recipient of this grace?