Interviewer: Joy both physical and spiritual very often emanates from an appreciation of beauty. Now, how are we to recognise beauty and the validity of beauty? John Keats wrote that "Beauty is truth, truth beauty; — that is all ye know on earth, and all ye need to know."

Sri Chinmoy: Right. He also said that “A thing of beauty is a joy forever.” We have to know that there is a vast difference between the physical beauty and the spiritual beauty. When we see physical beauty, earthly beauty, we immediately want to possess it, grab it. Even when we look at beauty with our naked human eyes, while we are appreciating it, we try to devour it. So appreciation is immediately followed by destruction. We see a flower which is so beautiful and we immediately want to touch it. But when we touch it, the life-force, the life-principle of the flower goes away. When we touch physical beauty, immediately we destroy the essence of the beauty there. But when we touch the inner beauty, the spiritual beauty, at that time we become part and parcel of the beauty itself. We grow into the beauty that we touch.

When we say that physical beauty is skin-deep, there is much truth in this. But inner beauty, the beauty of the soul, is infinite, because in the inner world we are always growing; we are always singing the song of self-transcendence. In the physical everything is limited. Somebody is beautiful, but he can be more beautiful. Somebody is tall, but he can be a little taller. The physical beauty that we notice in human beings or in nature is always limited. But inner beauty comes from the soul and the soul is the direct representative of God, who is all Beauty. Since the soul derives beauty from God directly, the soul’s capacity to express beauty is limitless.

So beauty is truth when we speak of inner beauty. The outer beauty is also truth; but it is temporary and transitory because it fades away. A flower, after one day, fades away. Physical beauty is truth; undoubtedly it is a form of truth, but its capacity is very limited. But inner beauty, which is limitless, is eternal.

From:Sri Chinmoy,Sri Chinmoy speaks, part 4, Agni Press, New York, 1976
Sourced from https://srichinmoylibrary.com/scs_4