The bandishes came to him at high moments of revelation,  jab haal chadhta hai. There was always some external inspiration, of course, that escalated him to this peak of samadhi, and the subconscious mind spoke. Traditionally, these divine moments have been called vaak, or the coming of the vakya, or saying of the saint, also called khayal  in classical music parlance. Panditji used to say that it was a state of masti, and I often found his face flushed with the meditation, and the connectivity with the divine energy. H e used to look like he had taken an internal bath in some golden holy waters—he looked so beatific, almost intoxicated, in ecstatic bliss. That state would go on for some time, and the lyric would also keep coming to completion, mostly, I would say. Because he has also spoken of instances when the asthai and antara came to him at separate times. Once he had got the new mukhada or bandish, for the next two to three days I would see him so totally preoccupied with it, finalizing the raga movements, perfecting each little detail, in an obsessive way till, this would go on, say another two or three days more, and then the composition was ready to be noted in the dairy and he would be at peace.