Question: All your musical instruments belong to you, but when you travel, you perform on the piano or organ that belongs to that particular concert hall or establishment. Does the consciousness of all the people who have played those instruments in any way affect you?

Sri Chinmoy: At the beginning, when I meditate for two or three minutes, I dive deep within and at that time I do anything that is needed. If purity is needed because some undivine person has played, then purity will be granted. The thing is that when I enter onto the stage, nothing affects me. I am not thinking of purity, I am not thinking that a great player has played before me. I do not think of anything. I enter into a state of consciousness where neither the instruments nor the persons who have played before are able to affect me. If I play for five minutes or fifteen minutes, while I am performing, I am playing in my own way. I am not allowing my heart or my musical talents or my consciousness to receive anything either from the individuals who have played or from the hall itself.