Question: If someone is gifted in one area, does this mean that his soul was originally given this potentiality, or did he try to achieve this for many lives and then finally achieve it?

Sri Chinmoy: Potentiality everybody has, like a lump of clay. When one potter shapes it, the pot becomes most beautiful, and another potter makes a pot that is not so beautiful. The essence of both pots is the same — clay. Likewise, in spirit we are all one. But while the one potter is moulding, you may ask, “Why has he moulded that particular pot so attractively?” There is something in that particular potter that is called conscious aspiration. In every other respect my essence, your essence, everybody’s essence remains the same. But while that particular potter is moulding, there is something inside him which gives him the opportunity to make something unique.

So it is not that right from the beginning a particular potentiality was given. No, it was destined for each person to receive very limited freedom, which started right from the beginning of creation. Now this freedom means potential. Some use this potential for the spiritual life, some use it for music, some for poetry and so on. Some do not use it at all. But potentiality will not develop into reality unless and until it is brought to the fore and developed by its possessor.