How Thoughts Impact Our Appearance

By Sumit Paul, New Age Islam 25 March 2025 Iss Qadar Asar Padta Hai Humari Soch Ka Ik Din Mein Chehra Badal Jaata Hai Insaan Ka -Aafroz Manikpuri (Thoughts impact thinking in such a way/ One's appearance changes in a day) " What you think, emerges on your face in a wink." Translated from the Gaelic of Scotland 'One who's good at heart will soon be good to look at, ' wrote the Greek poetess Sappho centuries ago in 'Fragments'. It's indeed the goodness of heart that gets manifested through one's face and the person looks beautiful. There's a beautiful verse in Chhandogya Upanishad: 'You're a beautiful human being; look-wise, thought-wise, mind-wise and heart-wise.' When thought, mind and heart work in a confluence and there's a synchronization of all three, the face shows that ethereal sublimity and one looks radiant. In other words, our thoughts impact and influence our appearance. We tend to give great importance to external features and outer appearance and seldom, if ever, care for the cleansing of heart, mind and thought(s). There're so many cleansing creams and products available in the market to look fairer and prettier. But we hardly go for cleansing ourselves from within. Outer beauty is but skin-deep. It's related to age and external factors. But internal beauty is perennial. It's everlasting. To quote Hafiz Hamdani, 'Tujh Mein Nihaan Hain Husn Ke Jalwe/Tu Naahaq Uljha Hai Aaina-E-Duniya Mein' (You've within you the splendour of beauty/You're unnecessarily lost in the mirror of the world). Remember, the mirror of the world (Aaina-E-Jahaan) is always false and misleading as it never shows the real beauty of a person. St. Augustine said, 'A man has Christ and Judas juxtaposed in the same frame. Only your thoughts and your inner goodness can reveal whether you're Jesus or Judas Escariot.' Have you ever wondered and asked yourself as to why every child looks beautiful but (facial) crookedness comes as the child grows up? Because, there's a divinity in every child but it gets compromised and also contaminated when he/she grows up. The negativity of the heart hues the appearance of the face. If we can't retain the innate and inborn childhood goodness with age, our face will reveal all the negative lineaments appearing on our face and we'll start looking crooked and cunning. To quote Urdu poet Shakeel Badayuni, 'Chehra Tarjumani Kare Hai Dil Ki/Dil Saaf Toh Rukh Bhi Saaf' (The face reflects the heart/If heart's clean, the face is also clean). Then, we'll not require any expensive fairness cream to look clean because our heart is clean. In Patanjali's Samyak Yoga, there's a pithy sutra: Kritam Na Karpit Mukhakriti Na Pratim (There must be a total coordination of internal goodness for external radiance). Alas, that coordination seems to have been lost. We're least bothered about the internal effulgence and hidden pulchritude. We never dust the palimpsest off our heart and seldom keep our thoughts scrupulously clean. This results in an incomplete persona and an ugly appearance. Professor Bulwer Lytton (father of Indian Viceroy Lord Lytton) wrote of Roman emperor Nero, 'He was the loveliest child but the ugliest adult.' Hope, none of us will ever want to be like him (Nero). Lastly, German Field Marshal Rommel said that it was hard to believe that the chubby Adolf Hitler would look so ruthless when he grew old. ' Where did his (Hitler's) baby face vanish to pave the way for a Satanic face, ' the legendary Field Marshal asked before his 'dignified' execution by the Nazis. Lastly, Swiss psychotherapist Carl Gustav Jung was very keen on working on this phenomenon as to how thoughts impact our appearance, but death's fell hands took him away before he could even begin working on this human behavioural aspect. By the way, Vishnu Puran, one of the 18 Puranas in Hindu mythology, states, "Swabhavasya Pratikriti Mukhakriti Asti Bhavo " (loosely translated, Face is the index of mind). V S Sukhtankar, who translated Mahabharat into English, wrote in one of his innumerable footnotes that Duryodhan had the most handsome and striking features but he looked crooked because of his unethical ways and cunning nature. To encapsulate, our nature changes our feature(s). ... A regular columnist for New Age Islam, Sumit Paul is a researcher in comparative religions, with special reference to Islam. He has contributed articles to the world's premier publications in several languages including Persian. URL: https://www.newageislam.com/spiritual-meditations/thoughts-impact-appearance-upanishad/d/134968 New Age Islam, Islam Online, Islamic Website, African Muslim News, Arab World News, South Asia News, Indian Muslim News, World Muslim News, Women in Islam, Islamic Feminism, Arab Women, Women In Arab, Islamophobia in America, Muslim Women in West, Islam Women and Feminism