Question: How can we see the inner beauty in people and not the outer physical beauty?

Sri Chinmoy: First of all, you have to know what happens to you when you see the physical beauty of someone. An old acquaintance by the name of jealousy enters into you. You say, "Oh, I am not as beautiful as so-and-so." We always feel that others have more beauty than we have. They feel that they are ugliness incarnate and you feel that you yourself are ugliness incarnate. This experience never ends. After you observe somebody's outer beauty, very often you feel jealousy. But instead of being jealous when you see somebody's outer beauty, try to have a divine attitude. You can say, "If it were at all necessary for me to be as beautiful as she, I am sure that God would have made me as beautiful. So it is not necessary for me."

What happens when you are aware of somebody's inner beauty? When you are aware of somebody's inner beauty, it means that you are in the inner world. When you are in the inner world, there is no competition. If you are aware of somebody's inner beauty you will never be jealous. In the inner world, you feel the inner beauty of that particular person as your very own. When you go deep within, anything that you see in somebody you will not see as his individual property; you will see it as the universal property. In this way, if you see the beauty of someone else, you will feel that that beauty equally belongs to you, because inner beauty is part of the universal Reality. If you want to be aware of other people's inner beauty, try to go deep within. Live in your heart and your soul, not in your mind. Then you will feel that whatever you see in others is also yours.