On the occasion of Pujya Swami Dayananda Saraswati’s birth date, we share a powerful excerpt from one of his writings.
The physical body was not there before a given point of time. Further, during the period of its existence, it keeps changing.
Since I take myself to be the body, I conclude that I am subject to disease and death. The physical body has certain features, certain abilities, and it also has many limitations. It is limited in height, weight, health, and so on. As though this is not enough, we have added complexes like concept of beauty.
The marketing media have created notions about norms of beauty: how the eyes should be, how the eyebrows should be, what should be the colour of the skin and so on. Such notions create further complexes regarding physical appearance.
As we said earlier, a cow with crooked horns does not have a complex about ugliness; it is strictly a human problem, which is an unnecessary infliction. The Lord has given us a body that is alive, it is able to perform various functions. It is a gift from the Lord and we need to take it as such, without appending value, judgments and complexes.
—Excerpted from Moments with Oneself
Problem is You Solution is You