Questions & Answers Part 5

The following questions were asked by Sri Chinmoy's Jharna-Kala assistants on 4 March 1976.

Question: Is there any difference between the souls of your earliest paintings and the souls of your later paintings?

Sri Chinmoy: There is no difference between the souls of my earliest paintings and the souls of my latest paintings. Each soul has its own way of embodying, revealing and manifesting the Supreme's Light. When the hour comes for a particular soul to embody, to reveal and to manifest the Light, that soul spontaneously, graciously and unconditionally makes me an instrument for the establishment of the divine Victory of the Supreme.

Question: When an article on your paintings appears in the media, or when the public appreciates your paintings, are the paintings aware that they are doing something for your manifestation and do they receive some type of joy?

Sri Chinmoy: The paint, the brush, the paper,these will not be aware of the appreciation that is coming from the art-loving mankind. But the dedicated, devoted and loving consciousness of the artist will be aware. In the ordinary human life, appreciation may create problems. It may arouse ego, vanity and pride. But when the appreciation is for divine paint-ings, when the appreciation touches the divine consciousness of the artist, at that time it is not ego, pride or vanity that is aroused. Rather, an opportunity dawns both for the artist and for the painting, as such, to offer something to the art-loving mankind and also to Mother Earth, which always wants to cherish and treasure something more illumining and more fulfilling in her heart-garden of aspiration, love, light and delight.

Question: Supposedly some colours don't go well with each other. When you paint, they all seem to go together. Do you ever feel that two colours don't fit together?

Sri Chinmoy: In my case, even now I do not know which colours are friends and which colours are enemies. Even now I do not know, although I have done thousands and thousands of paintings. You may see that I use green and yellow quite often. It is not because they match but because intuitively I get a kind of joy in using them together -- side by side or one overlapping another. It is not because the artist in me or my artist-heart has learned from somewhere that these two colours or any two colours can be put together. No. Only I feel that they have a peaceful harmony or that they complement one another's beauty and inner wealth.

I enter into not the battlefield of life but a garden of light. With the human body we enter into the battlefield of life. But when we deal with delicate things, with subtle and beautiful things, at that time we enter into the garden of our hearts divine reality. There we see that everything has its own purpose-reality. Everything has a special purpose. Everything contributes something to the total integrity of the object, of the subject, of the mission, of the vision, of the supreme Truth. It is not because they mix together or because they are good friends, but because they are all members of the same inner family, spiritual family. So they automatically go together.

The mind is not used and the mind will never be used. Unfortunately, I don't have the kind of mind that knows which colours should go together or things like that. God feels that if I don't have this kind of discriminating mind, then it is a great blessing. If I had it, then I would have a problem of preferences and partialities. But I don't have it.

Question: You have done over 300,000 paintings. Do you think you will aspire to do another 100,000?

Sri Chinmoy: First of all, I have not aspired to draw even one painting. I aspired to realise God. The Supreme out of His infinite Bounty granted me that boon. I aspired to be a poet and a writer. The Supreme was kind enough to grant this to me. At the dawn of my life, I wanted to become a good athlete. The Supreme was kind enough to grant that boon also. So I became a yogi, poet, writer, athlete, and so on. For all these things I aspired. To become a musician, I aspired in my own way. But when it is a matter of painting, I have been saying all the time that it is the Supremes absolute unconditional Grace and Compassion that has made me an artist, if I am one.

I will never aspire to draw or paint for the sake of appreciation. No! But if the Supreme wants to inspire me, if He wants to aspire in and through me in order to illumine the art-loving mankind, then He will paint in and through me. I as an individual will never aspire to make one more painting to draw world-acclaim or to manifest my capacity, which is only incapacity. I am not inspired to do that. I will aspire only to do one thing: to become and remain an ever-transcending, ever-illumining and ever-fulfilling instrument of the Supreme. For that only I will aspire. I will always try to become a perfect, more perfect, most perfect instrument, ever-transcending perfect instrument of the Supreme. For that I shall always aspire. But after realising God, I no longer aspire to become an athlete or a singer or a poet or a writer. No, no, no. I aspire only to become a more perfect, more illumining and more fulfilling instrument of the Supreme for the Supreme, and for this I shall eternally aspire.

Question: As an artist, I am sometimes tempted to crave popularity. Could you please comment on what you feel God's View on being popular is?

Answer: What kind of popularity does God want? Popularity is one thing; fulfillment is something else. One can be popular and, at the same time, one may not have the capacity or the willingness to fulfil God's Will on earth. There are many people on earth who are popular. They are popular on the physical plane, on the vital plane or on the mental plane, but they are nowhere in God's Oneness-plane. God wants to be fulfilled on all planes in a divine way. If we fulfil God on the physical plane, vital plane, mental plane, psychic plane and soul's plane, then only will He be happy. By becoming popular in an ordinary human way, we do not please or fulfil God. What He wants is the fulfillment and execution of His Will. If we do not fulfil God, then although we are human beings, in no way is our consciousness better than the consciousness of animals and stones. If we fulfil God, He will be happy. Fulfillment is the thing that He needs, divine fulfillment--not so-called human popularity.

Question: Many of your paintings are in the shape of circles. Does this have a particular meaning?

Sri Chinmoy: Mentally there is no meaning; there is no meaning at all. You as an individual can give one meaning and somebody else can give another meaning. Just use your fertile brain. You will say, "He is drawing the world, and he is saying that the world is the place for realization, manifes-tation and perfection." Somebody else will say that round, here, signifies zero. The world is nothing. It is meaningless. There is nothing here on earth, so he is saying, "Give up, give up everything. Only think of God." So one will say that the paintings are telling us to accept everything, because the world has everything to offer -- aspiration, realization, revelation and manifestation. And another will come up with the theory that this world is absurd, nothing, zero. So these are two theories that you and your fellow beings can apply to these paintings, if you use your fertile imagination.

But I as an artist, as an individual, know absolutely nothing as to why I have done this. It is a mystery to me, because I have not done it. lt is my Beloved Supreme who is painting in and through me.

Question: I noticed that the paintings you did today showed an unusually, bold imaginative design, with a lot of confidence. I was wondering if you think you will be doing more of that kind of painting.

Sri Chinmoy: In my case, I do not need confidence because I know that each painting is a dedication. When it is a matter of dedication, the dedication itself is joy. When we live in the world of confidence, confidence itself is not enough; we need something more. After confidence, success has to come. You are confident of doing something, but you may fail totally. You are confident that you will stand first in the race, but then you get a cramp and leave the track. Look at your confidence now! But if you have a surrendered will, it is different. At that time, you will say, "If l fail, even if I stand last, it will give me equal joy. Only I wish to execute the Supreme's Will. lf you have that kind of faith in the Supreme's operation, then you become a real instrument and you know that you are doing the right thing. To become absolutely one with His Will: this is what we all want; this is what we all need.

Question: Are your paintings different in the inner world from what they are in the outer world?

Sri Chinmoy: In the inner world they look much more beautiful, because the inner world is the source. In the source, the beauty has just blossomed. And in the inner world, there is no conflict to ruin the beauty.

Here in the outer world, when something is created, it can be appreciated and it can be criticized. Jealousy can enter into it and, again, oneness can enter into it. Each painting gets quite a few blows from human beings when they say it is very bad. With your outer eye you will say that nothing is damaged. But if you look with your inner eye, you will see that the painting has become damaged. Again, if people are appreciating the painting, it is strengthened. But in the inner world, the painting is absolutely fresh; nobody has touched it. The inner eye does not pollute. In the outer eye there is envy and jealousy, and if you look at a painting with the wrong consciousness, with an unaspiring consciousness, then the painting will be affected. But if you are aspiring while looking at the painting, your aspiration adds to the beauty and reality of the painting. So each time we pass judgement on a painting, we hurt the painting. If we simply say, "Oh, the colour should be that. Here it needs blue, and so forth," then we hurt the painting. Each time we pass judgement on a painting, we hurt the painting; we strike the painting. Again, when we appreciate the painting, it becomes stronger.

The outer world is like a battlefield. Sometimes the painting is winning, sometimes it is losing. But in the inner world, it is not like that. When we look at a painting, we don't criticize or judge it. Only we feel that this is how the Supreme wanted the painting to be done. We say, "Let us be one with the Supreme's manifestation in and through this painting. Whatever is achieved in the inner world is the right thing." So we become one with the painting as such. In the outer world, we see the painting as something other than our own reality. But in the inner world, we see the painting as an expression of our own inner reality. Therefore, we can't criticize or judge, because we are what we eternally are. In the outer world, we are constantly separating the painting from our consciousness. Therefore, we are seeing it in a different light. In the inner world we are seeing it with oneness-light and in the outer world, we are seeing it with a sense of separativity. So naturally the paintings are different in the inner world and the outer world.

Question: When I paint or sculpt, I always like to try and do it from my heart so that what I create is an expression of my heart. Can you please tell me how I can open my heart before I create and while I am actually creating?

Sri Chinmoy: Exactly the way flowers blossom. So go to your flower garden and look at a flower. See how slowly, stead-ily and unerringly the flower blossoms, petal by petal. So you kindly imagine inside your heart there is a lotus, or rose, or any flower that you like. Try to imagine that particular flower inside your heart. Then try to imagine that it is blossoming petal by petal. Similarly the heart itself expands. First it opens up. When you aspire, when you pray and meditate it opens up and gradually, gradually it expands. What we need at the very beginning, is the opening of our heart, and then, gradually, gradually, the expansion of our heart.

If you can imagine a flower inside your heart, it is quite possible to open up the heart. A flower is beautiful, pure, extremely beautiful, and extremely pure. Our heart is infinitely more beautiful and infinitely more pure and at the same time it is more than eager to pray and meditate. But the mind comes in and the mind does not allow the heart to come to the fore and do its regular activities, which are prayer and meditation.