Question: You have written hundreds of books and thousands of songs, and have painted tens of thousands of paintings. When you are at work, do you function 'automatically'? Are you like a medium, working in an unconscious and passive state, or are you fully conscious of your actions? When you are at work, do you consider yourself more of an artist or more of a medium?

Sri Chinmoy: If I take the credit for all the things that have been done in and through me by God’s infinite Grace, that will be the height of insincerity. I am not the doer; I try only to be a soulful and unconditional instrument of God so that He can manifest Himself in and through me in His own Way.

In my case, I do everything consciously and dynamically, in a spirit of sleepless self-offering. I do not do things automatically, but I try to do creative things ‘spontaneously’. The way you are using the word ‘medium’ cannot be applied to me, for I am always quite conscious of what is being done in and through me by the divine Force of my Lord Beloved Supreme.

When I am at work, I do not consider myself to be either an artist or a medium. I regard myself as God’s Compassion-Light-receiver and God’s Compassion-Light-distributor.