Part IV

SCA 333-339. General questions.

Question: Is it all right for disciples to write soulful songs, or are your songs all we need?

Sri Chinmoy: You do not have to worry about writing devotional songs or poems to express your feelings or to increase your devotion; I have written more than enough on your behalf. So many times in my songs and poems I have identified with the disciples — with your thoughts and feelings. In a particular poem when I am saying how helpless and useless I am, at that time I am not in a low consciousness. No, no, no! Then again, when I am imploring God for forgiveness, I am being absolutely sincere because at that time I have identified myself completely with this person or that person.

Over the years I have written so many poems and songs about the heart’s love, devotion and surrender, about forgiveness and gratitude, in order to offer the world inspiration and aspiration. If you can identify yourself with my songs, my writings, my aspiration and my realisation, then they will all become yours. Again, if you want to write songs, it is fine with me. If you feel it will increase your aspiration, then definitely do it. But if you do not have the capacity to compose, do not feel miserable. It is not at all necessary for your spiritual progress, since you can get the same inspiration and aspiration by identifying yourself with the writer and composer in me.

Although God is infinite, immortal and eternal, because of my love for Him I can claim Him as my own, very own. Similarly, when you sing one of my songs most soulfully, if you can feel that this particular song has become part and parcel of your life, if you can feel that each breath of yours is inside that song, then how can you not claim that song as your own? I will never say, “You are stealing the life-breath from my song.” On the contrary, I will be so happy if you can claim my songs as your own.

During yesterday’s Peace Concert, I brought down solid light, solid peace, solid bliss. While I was meditating, I was absolutely trembling with these divine realities. If somebody receives an iota of this wealth, then I am the happiest person. The Creator is not Sri Chinmoy but the Supreme in me. So if He shares His inspiration, aspiration and realisation with me, then why should I not share these with you? It is like sharing a mango. If I can share my mango with you, then I get added joy. The Supreme gave me some most delicious mangoes and asked me to share them with the rest of the world. Again, although it was the Supreme who gave me these things, I claim them as my own. Because of my feeling of oneness with Him, I do not feel that I got these divine realities from a third person.

Some spiritual Masters advise their students to express their creativity. They say, “If you create something, then you will learn something about the creative process and be more satisfied.” The theory is that if you achieve something through the sweat of your brow, then you will appreciate it more. If you have to earn your own money, you will realise how difficult it is and you will be wiser in the way you spend it. But there is also another theory: if your father gives you inner wealth, then from your spiritual life — from your meditation and aspiration — you can also get the wisdom to use it properly.