Question: Could you speak about the impact on the human consciousness of India's age-old heritage of devotional music?

Sri Chinmoy: The devotional music of the past was extremely prayerful and extremely soulful. Because it was pure, it definitely helped human consciousness, especially the consciousness of those who were dedicated to making spiritual progress. Today, most of the singers of Indian devotional music do not carry the same type of soulfulness. Now movie music with the modern touch is everywhere. Modernism or the modern music of the West has entered into the devotional music of the past, so it is not able to inspire Indians as it did before. Let us hope that the soulfulness and self-offering that was once found in all of India's devotional music will one day come back.