Question: I wanted to see beauty in myself because that is what my soul's name is. I felt like my soul told me, "If you want to see me, then you have to see beauty and goodness in other people." Is that a legitimate experience of my soul?

Sri Chinmoy: Absolutely. But do not take others as separate from yourself. Take them as an extension of your own being, your own earthly existence. When you look in a mirror, you can see any part of your body. You can hold up your little finger and see if it is good or beautiful. Then you can hold up two, three or four fingers. If they are your own fingers, you will always see them as good. In the same way, take each individual that you are encountering as a limb of your own body. If you take them as a third person, it may be very difficult to see beauty in them. A third person can be a friend or he can easily be an enemy. My little finger is not my enemy. My thumb is not my enemy. Any part of my physical body is not my enemy. They are my friends. In a machine, we need all the parts. In the same way that you take your body as one unit, you have to take each human being as part and parcel of your own reality. When you can feel this, it is very, very easy to see good things. If you want to appreciate yourself, easily you can because you are under no obligation to listen to others who may say, “Oh, she is not beautiful.”

Always take the whole world as part and parcel of your own existence. Do not take the world as a third party. If you take the world as a third party, then competition comes forward. Always see the world inside you — not before you, around you or behind you. See the world inside your own heart, inside your own divine reality. This divine reality is all beauty. Beauty is blossoming sleeplessly and breathlessly inside your heart.