Question: How do we know which talent to develop if we have more than one artistic tendency?

Sri Chinmoy: If a seeker has more than one artistic tendency, he has to decide which one gives him the greatest satisfaction. Because I am a spiritual man I have a little mastery over various art forms. I have talent for writing poems and I also have talent for writing other things, like plays. But I have to say I have more talent for writing poems. I can easily write one hundred poems every day if I want to. Writing poetry for me is like drinking water. But even three plays a day would be very difficult for me. That is because in the literary field, poetry is much closer to spirituality than plays or stories or essays and articles. In India a poet is called a Seer of the Truth. He who sees is called Kavi, the Seer-poet. Why should I constantly exercise my spiritual capacity in order to write a few plays, when poetry comes spontaneously to me, with practically no effort at all? If I have to say which literary art I prefer, I will naturally say poetry; I will definitely give much more importance to my poetry than to plays or stories or other things.

In your case, if you have two or three artistic capacities, you should try to develop whichever one gives you most joy and whichever comes to you spontaneously. Again, there is nothing wrong if you try to develop or increase your capacities in various art forms. Why do you have to restrict yourself only to poetry or to music if you have other talents as well? In sports we have the decathlon for those athletes who are all-round athletes. Similarly, if you have the capacity to do well in ten items, why be satisfied with only one? Again, it is not good to be a jack-of-all-trades, but a master of none. If that saying applies to you, then the best thing is to find out which form of creative activity gives you most spontaneous joy. That will be the right one for you to concentrate on developing.