Question: Is it possible to be both a musician and a yogi?

Sri Chinmoy: Certainly, it is quite possible to be both a musician and a yogi. In Mother India there have been many saints, sages and spiritual Masters who were blessed with divine music. Their musical talent did not interfere with their God-realisation, and even after achieving God-realisation, their musical talents did not leave them. A yogi’s qualities and a musician’s qualities can go side by side, provided the yogi has the capacity and inherent talent for music. Even if the yogi spends a very short time in the musical world, he can be a very good musician, but it will take infinitely more time for a musician to become a yogi.

Yoga means union, inseparable oneness with God. A yogi is one who has established conscious union with God. He can easily become a musician because in his inseparable oneness with God, he can do anything he wants, But a yogi waits for God’s Will. If it is God’s Will, he will become a musician; or if it is God’s Will, he will become something else. Otherwise, he will remain with his own lofty realisation and oneness; he will reveal and manifest the highest Peace, Light and Truth the way the Supreme wants him to.

A musician eventually has to become a yogi, because no musician, no matter what he is playing right now, will remain unrealised. God will not allow any person on earth to remain unrealised forever. If he is not a seeker, he has to become a seeker. Then naturally, in the course of time, he will become a Yogi.