Question: As a disciple, should we play only soulful music when we play an instrument?

Sri Chinmoy: It depends on the disciple. If he is a first-class disciple and wants to play music, then naturally he will have to play soulful music only, for if he plays lower vital music he will fall down from the top of the mango tree. With greatest difficulty he climbed up the mango tree and now he is so happy that he is on the topmost branch. But if temptation comes and he falls down and breaks his leg, then it will take him quite a few years to climb up again. Because he was a first-class disciple he was able to climb up the tree, but when temptation began, he fell down and became a seventh-class disciple. For a seventh-class disciple to climb up the tree again is almost impossible. So a first-class disciple should always play soulful music.

You may say that if you drink nectar ten times and then drink poison only once, nothing will happen. No. You will die. You can drink nectar as many times as you want to, but if you drink poison even once, you won’t be able to nullify its effect. You have to feel like this: you can take sugar seven times, but if you take salt only once, it will ruin the taste of the sugar. You will immediately feel the effect of the salt.

It is always advisable to play only soulful music. Again, there are grades and degrees of soulfulness. We should try to play the most soulful music, but if we cannot, we should try to play the next most soulful music that we hear.

We have to know that if you play music from the vital plane, we are only fooling ourselves. The music that is inspired from around or below the navel is the vital music. Music that comes from the heart is psychic music and the music that comes from the inmost recesses of the heart, very deep within, comes from the soul. If we can feel that it is not our voice as we sing, not our tongue, but some reality deep inside our heart which is expressing itself, then we will know that it is the soul’s music.