Question: Does all art that has ever been created and that ever will be created first exist on some other plane and, if so, in what form?

Sri Chinmoy: Everything that is here is also in a higher plane. Nothing on earth can exist that has not first existed in the inner world. Every capacity that one has comes from some other plane. But there the capacity is not as manifested or as clear. It is like a nebula. Only the essence of the capacity is there. When it is manifested, it becomes something solid and palpable. What exists in another plane does not have a material form. From the formless it takes form on the earth plane, as water, which is formless, becomes ice.

We can say that in the other planes the creation is like a seed. There can be no achievement, no creation, no manifestation on earth unless there is first a seed on the inner plane. That seed embodies the thing that is going to be manifested. But unless the seed has germinated into a plant, we cannot even see it, let alone appreciate it. When it is on the inner plane, our outer vision will not see it because it is too subtle. Just because it is so subtle, we feel that there is no capacity inside it. Then, when the creation appears on the earth plane, we feel that it came out of the blue, that somebody waved a wand and it just appeared like magic. But it is not like that. Everything is in seed form in the inner world first, and then only can it become manifested in the outer world. The embodiment of Truth-reality which is manifested here in the form of art or in any other form first existed in the inner world.

In Indian scriptures it is said that the cosmic banyan tree is different from an ordinary tree. With an ordinary tree we see that the seed is underground and the tree rises up from it. But with the cosmic tree the seed is above and the tree grows down from it. The Vedic Seers said that this tree faces the ground and its root is on the top, on the highest plane of consciousness. They realised that creation in the seed form is above, not below.

From:Sri Chinmoy,Art's life and the soul's light, Agni Press, 1974
Sourced from https://srichinmoylibrary.com/al