Question: You hear poets speaking about the Muses. Is this merely a metaphor or are there actually beings in the higher worlds that preside over certain arts?

Sri Chinmoy: For each art there will be a particular deity. But also there is the goddess Saraswati who is the principal ruler of art. It is not that she only plays on the vina. She gives knowledge and wisdom, the greatest art. Of all arts, Wisdom-Light is the best. There are other deities who also preside over art in general. If a seeker does not want to accept life as an art, if he wants only to be a painter or a musician or a singer or something, then he does not approach the one who embodies everything.

If I want to be a painter, then I approach a particular deity who has some divine painting capacity. But if I want to be God’s artist, if I want my life to be a supreme work of art, at that time my prayer goes to the highest, to one who embodies all the capacities of life. It need not be the Supreme, but perhaps somebody whom the Supreme has made His representative, someone who embodies all the artistic capacities which represent life as such. I will try to reach the cosmic god or goddess who embodies all the qualities of life as an art.