Questions & Answers Part 3

Question: Did the most famous artists in the world get their inspiration from God?

Sri Chinmoy: There are quite a few famous artists who didn't get any inspiration from God directly. There are some famous artists who were atheists; they didn't even believe in God, So how can you say that they got their inspiration directly from God? In one sense, everything is from God -- good, bad, everything. Inspiration, you can say, comes from a higher source, and this higher source is God. Or you can say that these artists got their inspiration from nature, Nature itself has its own in-spiration, its own capacity, and some artists identified themselves with nature. Again, nature also is a part of God. But when it is a matter of God as a personal deity, God in His per-sonal aspect, they did not necessarily get their inspiration from God.

This house, let us say, belongs to God, If anybody takes something from God's House, you can say that they have taken that thing from God. For what is the difference between God and God's House? Again, there is a difference, because God is inside one particular room of the House. If you pray and meditate, then you can go into that room and get inspiration from God directly. But if somebody doesn't care for that kind of personal God, then he can get inspiration from God's House, which is nature. Nature is also God; it is God's outer manifestation.

Question: What is art from the spiritual point of view?

Sri Chinmoy: From the spiritual point of view, art is an expression of divinity that is extremely meaningful and fruitful, It is through this divinity expression that we increase and bring to the fore our own inner potentiality,

Question: What is your favourite form of art?

Sri Chinmoy: If it is spiritual art, my favorite form of art is constant meditation. If it is painting, then you can say that quite often I like acrylics best.

Question: Why are your paintings so beautiful?

Sri Chinmoy: If my paintings are beautiful, then it is because l am trying to keep my heart always beautiful. My paintings are the outer expression of my heart's prayer-beauty. When you appreciate my paintings, it is the outer manifestation of my heart's beauty that you are seeing with your aspiration-heart. Therefore, you see my art as beautiful.

Question: What do you feel when you are painting?

Sri Chinmoy: Most of the time when I paint I get a kind of inner joy and a kind of inner discovery. When l paint, I discover something which I did not know before. That is why I get tremendous joy, most of the time, when l am painting.

Question: Does colour have as much importance for an artist as it does for the spiritual seeker?

Sri Chinmoy: It depends on the artist. If the artist is a seeker and he cares for the significance of colours, then if he is drawing, he may give more importance to colours than an ordinary artist. If this artist is a seeker, then he will know that blue represents Infinity or that blue is Krishna's light. Then while he is using the colour blue, he may think of Krishna or he may think of Infinity. In that way, if he is a seeker, the artist will get much from his inner knowledge of the significance of different colours. If he knows in the inner world what a particular colour signifies, and if he wants to project this quality to the outer life in his painting, then his inner knowledge will definitely help. Again, there are artists who do not know these things and do not care for them, but who have an inborn inner inspiration. And through that inspiration they do wonderful things.