Question: If a soul is more evolved, will it take on a body that is more physically beautiful, or is there no correlation between physical beauty and spiritual development?

Sri Chinmoy: No, there is no correlation at all. There have been many spiritual Masters who were physically quite ugly, and there have been many who were very beautiful. If you ask God whether my soul is more beautiful or more developed than that of some handsome movie actor, God will sincerely tell you that my soul is far more developed. It depends entirely on God’s Will and on the individual soul’s will what kind of house his soul will live in.

If somebody has plenty of money, even then he may not care for a big mansion. He feels that a small room is enough. And somebody who has very little money will spend everything he has to rent a big house to show off. But this big house may get him into tremendous financial difficulty. Then he has to get a loan from the bank in order to pay the rent, and perhaps he will not be able to buy proper food for himself. So, although he has a very big house, he is starving and bankrupt.

The beauty that we see in spiritual Masters is the soul’s beauty rather than physical beauty. That beauty does not create any problems, either for its possessor or for others. Just because of your aspiration you see their inner beauty and you accept them because of it.