Question: When you make a poem into a song, does the melody come as spontaneously as when you paint?

Sri Chinmoy: I don't call them poems; they are songs, only I don't compose the tune at that time. Then, when I set the tune, sometimes I get the tune before I actually place my fingers on the harmonium. It is absolutely fixed from the beginning to the end. Sometimes a tune comes spontaneously. At that time, my mind will be able to see the first half, but the mind does not know what the ending will be. Sometimes, after I have completed the song, I feel that one key has disappointed me. While I am singing the first line, it is very soulful. Then, when I complete the song and play it again, I can't believe that I composed it. It is offensive to my ears. I feel sorry, and I try to fix it. I try and try, but most of the time I fail. When I am walking along the street or sitting in my room, I may get a beautiful tune, but when I sit with my notebook in front of my harmonium, at that time I don't get that tune. Sometimes it takes me time. When inspiration is not there I don't get the proper key. It is a real struggle. It is absolutely torture. The human mind is being tortured by the human greed in me. I have to finish. Where is aspiration? It is all desire. But it does not happen quite often. On very, very rare occasions this happens. Usually there is real inspiration; otherwise, I could not have done so many songs. Since I left for Australia, I have written 372 songs. Now, I am setting tunes to them. So about four hundred songs I have got this year already [April 1976]. That is why I am confident enough to say that this year I will be able to compose one thousand songs.

From:Sri Chinmoy,God the Supreme Musician (1976), Agni Press, 1976
Sourced from https://srichinmoylibrary.com/gsm_1976