Question: Should we focus ourselves in a particular way to appreciate great art?

Sri Chinmoy: The best thing is to become an artist yourself. If you can’t become an artist, then you will appreciate the artist. First I want to become something; if I can’t become something, then immediately I will enter into somebody who has become that thing and become one with him. When I enter into his soul and establish a free access to it, when I become one with him, gradually I develop the same capacity that he has.

There are some people who do not care for arts such as music, painting or dancing; they care only for their own spiritual realisation. There have been many spiritual Masters who did not care for any kind of art except the supreme art, which is God-realisation and God-discovery. But if you want to be a tree with branches all around and millions of leaves and flowers, then it is absolutely necessary for you to appreciate others who have the artistic capacity which you are crying for. By appreciating them, gradually, gradually you also develop the capacity to appreciate their art, and this is also one of the ways to develop artistic capacity.