Question: Do some animals see more beauty than others?

Sri Chinmoy: Here we have to know what kind of animal it is. If it is a tiger or a lion or an elephant, it will not see any beauty. Their beauty is destruction. A tiger's beauty will be in devouring you. That is his satisfaction, and that satisfaction it considers beauty. In our human life also, satisfaction is beauty. There is no difference between satisfaction and beauty. As soon as you see a beautiful flower you are satisfied. But also, our satisfaction lies in becoming one with the beauty that we see. We want to be as pure as the flower. But a tiger's satisfaction will be found only in destruction.

Again, there are some animals that are very mild and won't try to destroy anybody; they will only try to go towards their own goal. They are trying to reach something, not destroy something. So naturally they are creating beauty. In the animal kingdom beauty means harmony. A deer is not going to eat me up. The deer's very nature is to run and run towards an unknown goal. The deer's constant movement is not for destruction, but to see something, to feel something and to reach something. That movement gives it satisfaction, and that satisfaction is real beauty. We human beings do not care to move. Most of us are lazy. Again, when we do move and encounter some obstacle, we feel that we are lost; immediately we feel that there is no goal and we don't try to go in another direction.