Question: Are there hints in the world around us of higher forms of beauty?

Sri Chinmoy: Higher forms of beauty are always trying to express their essence and substance through material things, through nature, through incidents or experiences in life, through ideas and ideals. It is often the expression or revelation of the higher beauty that we experience in life. When we look at a child, the beauty that we see is only an expression of the higher beauty that is embodied in him. When we see a flower, the flower represents the beauty of a higher world embodied and expressed. Whenever we see beauty on earth, we have to know that it is always the expression of some higher beauty. When we see a person who is beautiful, we have to know that his beauty is not skin deep. It is through the physical that the Divine is expressing its reality. So beauty in the physical world is always an expression of some higher beauty. But we may not utilise this beauty divinely. A flower is beautiful, but we may just grab the flower and tear it to pieces. What we have to do is learn to see and use this earthly beauty in a divine way.