Upon being asked to define inner beauty, Sadhguru explains that given a choice, one would always choose joy. However, since a large part of our emotions happen unconsciously, negativity arises. He concludes that when one's life energies are engineered in a certain way, inner beauty and joy radiate naturally.

Questioner: How do you define inner beauty?

Sadhguru: Inner beauty?

Questioner: Yes.

Sadhguru: If you have the right kind of eyes, everything is absolutely beautiful.

Questioner: There’s no relative thing.

Sadhguru: Relative thing is a social factor again, it’s a training, it’s depends on what kind of data has gone into your mind. But if you are in a certain state of joy and you look at anything everything is beautiful. When you’re unhappy, only certain things are beautiful, certain things are ugly. When you’re very happy, you look at anything, everything looks absolutely beautiful.

See, there are many ways to look at this. One simple way is; right now you may be identified with many things, starting from your physical body, to your mind, to your education, to your religion, to your society, to various things that you hold in your life but when you simply sit here, if you simply sit with me right now, you’re just a piece of life, isn’t it? A certain amount of life energy, that’s all you are, isn’t it so? Identified with many, many things, but fundamentally you’re just a certain amount of life energy. So this life energy which I, which you call as ‘myself’ at this moment, this life energy sometimes has been very joyful, has it been? Has it been? Please say yes, otherwise it’s tragedy. Sometimes it’s been utterly miserable, sometimes very peaceful, sometimes turmoil, sometimes agony, sometimes ecstasy. This has happened to this, isn’t it? So this life energy which you call as ‘myself’ is capable of all these things. So if this life energy is capable of all these things, if you were given a choice what kind of expression your life energy should find right now in this moment, what would you choose? Agony or ecstasy?

Definitely ecstasy. So if there was a conscious choice about how to keep your life energies right now, definitely you would have kept yourself absolutely joyful and ecstatic. Only because a large part of you is happening unconsciously, other things which you do not want are happening within you. What you do not want is happening in the world, you cannot stop it 100 percent; only to some extent we manage these things. But within you, you are the only ingredient. In the world there are a million things. See, if we want to create a situation, the way we want it, we need the cooperation of 100 people around us. All of them will never cooperate 100 percent, they will all play the game that way, isn’t it? In any given situation. Even if you’re just two people in the family, you cannot have the situation 100 percent the way you want it, yes or no?

This is the reality with the outside, but with the inside you’re the only reality. Nobody in the world happens your way, at least this one person must happen your way, isn’t it? But right now, even this person is not happening your way, that’s why you’re asking what is the way to joy. Your mind is not happening the way you want it, your body is not happening the way you want it, your emotion is not happening the way you want it, nor your life energies are happening the way you want it. We need to do something about it, isn’t it? If all these four are happening the way you want them, you would definitely be joyful every moment of your life, isn’t it? Irrespective of what’s happening around you. So we need to explore the technology, because it’s a subjective technology, because the ingredient is you, it’s about you. Unless we create a certain atmosphere of commitment and focus, to look beyond certain things that you’re identified with right now, it will not be possible to explore this.

The reason why the spiritual sciences, especially in this country which was so rich in the mystical traditions, has become so ridiculous is, people tried to do it anywhere and everywhere, without necessary committed atmospheres.