Question: Why do some people have artistic capacities while others do not?

Sri Chinmoy: Why are some people hungry for God-realisation, while others are not? You are hungry for God-realisation: that is why God is giving you this food. If you were not hungry, then God would not feed you. These things depend entirely on one’s inner hunger. Some people feel the necessity of developing artistic capacities and some people don’t, just as some people want to become poets while others want to become singers.

You may ask why God did not give the same hunger to everybody. The answer is that God gave us limited freedom, and with that limited freedom some people said that they did not care to become musicians or singers or artists. But others felt that artistic capacity was something very good, very great, and very necessary in their lives. It depends on individual choice. Limited freedom we are given. With that freedom somebody will practise for twenty hours a day to become a musician and somebody else will spend his time reading the newspapers and watching television. If you spend your time reading The New York Times or the Daily News, you will get world information, but you will not become a great musician. Opportunity is given; time is also given. But you are using the time for one purpose and somebody else is using the same time for another purpose. With this limited freedom and limited opportunity, he is aiming at a particular goal which he will eventually reach. It depends entirely on your inner hunger and what you want to become.