Question: Lately I've been thinking about how to make the inspiration-bird my constant friend, and to be receptive and aware of it all the time.
Sri Chinmoy: Whether the seeker is a poet, an artist or a musician, he needs inspiration. In any field if the individual wants to achieve something, he needs inspiration. Inspiration, like imagination, is a world of its own. Some people really have free access to that world. Others have to knock at the door, and at times the door opens and at times it does not. Just now I was telling you about the soldier and the commander. Take inspiration as the soldier and aspiration as the commander. If you can please the higher authority, automatically the lower authority will be pleased with you. Aspiration is infinitely more powerful, meaningful and fruitful than inspiration. So if you can constantly aspire then automatically the inspiration-bird will come.
Sri Chinmoy, The quintessence of Knowledge-Sun, Agni Press, 1987