Two thirsty eyes

1. Two thirsty eyes

```

Away

My Beloved flies.

Mine are

Two thirsty eyes. ```

2. Rainbow-dream

```

To devour the Dust-Gold-Feet

Of my Lord Supreme

Every morn my heart becomes

A rainbow-dream. ```

3. I came from God

```

I came from God

The Eternal Dreamer.

I am heading towards God

The Immortal Lover. ```

4. Tell me

```

Tell me, my Lord Supreme,

Tell me,

Is my heart every day

Nearing Thee? ```

5. The golden Flute

```

A sea of Peace and Joy and Light

Beyond my reach I know.

In me the storm-tossed weeping night

Finds room to rage and flow.

I cry aloud, but all in vain;

I helpless, the earth unkind!

What soul of might can share my pain?

Death-dart alone I find.

A raft am I on the sea of Time,

My oars are washed away.

How can I hope to reach the clime

Of God's eternal Day?

But hark!

I hear Thy golden Flute,

Its notes bring the Summit down.

Now safe am I, O absolute!

Gone death, gone night's stark frown!

```

6. God-climbing fire

```

Once more I shall become

My heart's God-climbing fire.

My eyes shall see nowhere

The face and body of mire. ```

7. God's absence and God's Presence

```

O Lord, Thy absence has measureless power.

Pangs of bitter failures rage through my mind.

Hot knives stab through my heart with every breath.

I know, I know, I am the eternal blind.

O Lord, Thy Presence has fathomless power.

Who says my soul is limp with black despair?

Eternity sits at my feet like a slave,

And Death, a weeping child — helpless, bare. ```

8. Perfect

```

I may not be perfect

In seeking,

But my Lord is perfect

In finding. ```

9. To serve my Maker-Lord

```

To serve my Maker-Lord

I saw the light of day.

To love my Beloved Friend

I began our oneness-play. ```

10. I came

```

Into the world of beauty’s flame,

Into the world of offering’s game,

Into the world of lustre-flood,

I came, I came, my existence came. ```

11. Heart-Floor

```

I kneel before

God's Forgiveness-Door.

“Come in, My child,

Dance on My Heart-Floor.” ```

12. Forgiveness-Feet

```

I cling to God’s Forgiveness-Feet.

His Compassion-Eye all-where I meet. ```

13. I saw in the silence

```

In the desert-silence

I saw God the Warrior.

In the forest-silence

I saw God the Lover.

In the mountain-silence

I saw God the Dreamer.

In the ocean-silence

I saw God the Awakener.

In the sky-silence

I saw God the Liberator. ```

14. Once more

```

God is weeping for you;

Oh, do not cry.

You are bound to succeed;

Just once more try. ```

15. Silence-blossoms

```

Silence-blossoms have awakened my mind.

My tears and God's Smiles clasped I find. ```

16. I see Thy golden Wings

```

I see Thy golden Wings

That shelter all our souls.

I see Thy Lustre-Heart

That feeds our earthly roles. ```

17. Revelation

```

No more my heart shall sob or grieve.

My days and nights dissolve in God’s own Light.

Above the toil of life my soul

Is a Bird of Fire winging the Infinite.

I have known the One and His secret Play,

And passed beyond the sea of ignorance-dream.

In tune with Him, I sport and sing;

I own the golden Eye of the Supreme.

Drunk deep of Immortality,

I am the root and boughs of a teeming vast.

My Form I have known and realised.

The Supreme and I are one; all we outlast. ```

18. The right to choose

```

Oh, what I have and what I am,

Am I ready to lose?

If so, my Lord Supreme tells me:

Him I have the right to choose. ```

19. An ant like me to save

```

An ant like me to save

You came into this world of dust and clay.

A beggar like me to love

And give me a role sublime in Your Cosmic Play. ```

20. Hope

```

Thou art my Lord, my golden dream,

Thou art my life in death.

O bless me with Thy Hope Supreme,

Lord of the Eternal Breath!

Agelong the vision of Thy Sun

For darkness have I sought.

I know the evils I should shun

And quickly bring to nought.

The earth is deaf and blind, my Lord;

Its true goal it denies.

It hears no voice, no Heavenly word

From those who seek the skies.

O yet I feel Thy kingly Grace

With my feeble mortality.

I shall win at last the noonward race,

Plunge in the Nectar-Sea. ```

21. Paradise

```

Paradise is

Where my sweet Lord is.

Paradise is

Where I bend my knees. ```

22. Supreme Guest

```

At the final end

Of the human quest,

God will come to you

As your Supreme Guest. ```

23. Heart-Nest

```

If you listen

To your Lord’s Behest,

He will grant you

His own Heart-Nest. ```

24. Precious

```

Precious beyond measure is God’s Will,

None can undo its Power.

Precious beyond measure are man’s tears,

They alone can hug God's Hour.

Precious beyond measure is man’s love,

Unveiling his golden face.

Precious beyond measure is God’s Gift:

His all-fulfilling Grace. ```

25. Where

```

Where am I coming from?

I am coming from my mind’s doubt-funeral.

Where am I going to?

I am going to my Lord’s singing Rehearsal. ```

26. Blue star

```

Permit not thoughts

To come from near and far.

Let your mind remain

Tranquillity’s blue star. ```

27. Aspiration-song

```

I have been enjoying watching my mind’s

Coiled confusion-cobra all along.

I know not when I shall be ready to sing

My heart’s climbing aspiration-song. ```

28. A little

```

A little joy have I of ceaseless joy,

A little day of timeless day.

Yet knows no bound this empty show of mine;

I march along a goalless way.

O Love!

A desert within me ever pines.

Do turn it into a song of dawn.

I know not in what hour of evil night

Thou art, my Lord, from me withdrawn.

Life now must reach Thy Breath of Bliss supreme,

Make Thee the one and only Guide.

Thou art the Bridge between my death and birth;

O let my longings in Thee abide. ```

29. Until You claim me

```

My Beloved sweet,

Until You claim me Your own,

My heart shall sob,

My breath and I shall moan. ```

30. God-telephone

```

My fears and tears

Never leave me alone.

Out of order

Remains my God-telephone. ```

31. My Lord in silence

```

My Lord in silence hears

My helpless cry.

My Lord in silence helps

My vision fly.

My Lord in silence kills

My human pride.

My Lord in silence gives

My heart a ride. ```

32. Essence of prayer

```

Essence of prayer:

A journey to the Height.

Substance of prayer:

An entrance to Light. ```

33. Immortality

```

I feel in all my limbs His boundless Grace;

Within my heart the Truth of life shines white.

The secret heights of God my soul now climbs;

No dole, no sombre pang, no death in my sight.

No mortal days and nights can shake my calm;

A Light above sustains my secret soul.

All doubts with grief are banished from my deeps,

My eyes of light perceive my cherished Goal.

Though in the world, I am above its woe;

I dwell in an ocean of supreme release.

My mind, a core of the One’s unmeasured Thoughts;

The star-vast welkin hugs my Spirit's peace.

My eternal days are found in speeding time;

I play upon His Flute of rhapsody.

Impossible deeds no more impossible seem;

In birth-chains now shines Immortality. ```

34. Orphan hunger-core

```

No more my heart shall cry,

No more my soul shall sigh, no more.

Today my Lord Supreme

Has touched my orphan hunger-core. ```

35. Poor little heart

```

Poor little heart,

Do not cry.

I have come to you

With a rising rainbow.

Poor little heart,

Do not cry.

I have come to you

With my beloved Father's

Fountain-Flow.

```

36. Heart-garden

```

My Lord Beloved Supreme

Was shocked

To see my heart-garden

All locked. ```

37. When I take shelter

```

When I take shelter

In my Master’s eye,

I see star-twinkling sky.

When I take shelter

In my Master’s heart,

I devour death-dart.

When I take shelter

At my Master's feet,

Ignorance-dream I quit.

```

38. God-meadows

```

If you live in your past,

You will cry in dark shadows.

If you live in your present,

You will dance in God-meadows. ```

39. Look who treasures you

```

Pardon world-pressures.

Abandon sense-pleasures.

Look who treasures

You: God Himself! ```

40. Ignorance-thief

```

Life is so brief, alas, life is so brief.

Why delay in catching ignorance-thief? ```

41. Halt

```

Not my mind-cherishing life,

But my heart-blossoming breath

I need, I love, I treasure

To halt the pride of death. ```

42. I compel

```

Battered by teeming doubts

And blinding fears,

I compel my Lord Supreme

To swim in tears. ```

43. Another day

```

Another day, another day,

My Lord Supreme is far away.

Another day, my heart can be

The all-giving breath of patience-tree.

Another day, my life can feed

My soulful world with its crying need.

Another day, I pine to hear

God’s Voice of Light and feel Him near.

Another day, another day,

My tears shall win His blue-gold Ray.

Another day, another day,

And then, no more my ignorance-clay.

Another day, I'll be God's Love,

Within, without, below, above. ```

44. Surprise

```

Awake, arise, awake, arise!

God has for you a big surprise. ```

45. Love-Sea

```

Your turn will also come;

Just wait and see.

You will be invited to swim

In God’s Love-Sea. ```

46. Heaven commands

```

Heaven is so far from the human mind,

But the heart is extremely close.

Heaven commands the mind to halt its journey,

And calls the heart its rose. ```

47. Fondness-dove

```

My sweet Lord is lonely for my love.

I shall make Him my fondness-dove. ```

48. Even I hesitate

```

My Lord Supreme begs me

To be His Heart-playmate.

My body-vital-mind-heart,

Even I hesitate. ```

49. The ancient man

```

The ancient man

Needed God's Grace.

The modern man

Needs God's Face.

The future man

Will need God’s Embrace. ```

50. The tears of Mother Earth

```

The tears of Mother Earth

Make my life pure.

The smiles of Father Heaven

Make my heart sure. ```

51. At last

```

At last I now have peace of mind:

My fault-finding eyes nowhere I find. ```

52. Apocalypse

```

Within, without the cosmos wide am I;

In joyful sweep I loose forth and draw back all.

A birthless, deathless Spirit that moves and is still

Ever abides within to hear my call.

I who create on earth my joys and doles

To fulfil my matchless quest in all my play,

I veil my face of truth with golden hues

And see the serpent-night and python-day.

A Consciousness-Bliss I feel in each breath;

I am the self-amorous child of the Sun.

At will I break and build my symbol sheath

And freely enjoy the world’s unshadowed fun. ```

53. Staircase

```

I shall climb up

My soul’s dream-flooded staircase.

Endless obstacles

Dauntless my heart shall face. ```

54. I am an idiot

```

I know I am an idiot true.

In the growing clouds my hopeful feet,

Hands flung skywards for the blue stars.

My throes no sun, no moon, shall greet.

I had a dream, a real dream:

God would bury Himself to live

In human ignorance hungry and black,

To human death His Soul He’d give. ```

55. Depression-rope

```

Every day I commemorate

The lucid birth of hope.

Therefore, my life and I see not

The long depression-rope. ```

56. Sun-Flames

```

Energised by my self-improvement-task,

In my Lord’s Transcendent Sun-Flames I bask. ```

57. God-Fragrance-Sky

```

I want my life to live

On God-hunger-cry.

I want my breath to fly

In God-Fragrance-Sky. ```

58. Buy today

```

Be wise,

Buy peace, today buy.

Tomorrow

The price will go high. ```

59. My name, my age, my home

```

At last I know my name.

My name is God’s eternal Game.

At last I know my name.

At last I know my age.

My age is Infinity's page.

At last I know my age.

At last I know my home.

My home is where my flame-worlds roam.

At last I know my home.

```

60. Surrender-city

```

Do show me the way

To surrender-city.

I wish to reclaim

My own divinity. ```

61. Nowhere I find

```

Teeming doubt-clouds

Have blinded my mind.

My rainbow-heart-joy

Nowhere I find. ```

62. Yes

```

An immediate ‘Yes!’ to God’s every Command,

O my hesitant mind, from you I demand. ```

63. Fast forward

```

Your mind’s

Ceaseless, worthless worries fast forward

If you

Desire from God His Peace-Award. ```

64. O love me more and love me long

```

O love me more and love me long.

My boat is sinking, my hope is strong.

O love me more and love me long.

My breath is bleeding, my dream is strong.

O love me more and love me long.

My soul is leaving, my surrender strong.

O love me more and love me long.

My Goal is crying, my promise strong. ```

65. Hope and promise

```

My hope

Is my heart-land.

My promise

Is God’s own Hand. ```

66. Struggle's gloom

```

With a blank sorrow, heavy am I now grown;

Like things eternal, changeless stands my woe.

In vain I try to overcome my foe.

O Lord of Love!

Make me more dead than stone.

Thy Grace of silent Smile I never feel;

The forger of evil stamps my nights and days.

His call my sleepless body ever obeys.

My heart I annihilate and try to heal.

The dumb earth-waste now burns a hell to my soul.

I fail to fight with its stupendous doom,

My breath is a slave of that unending gloom.

For Light I pine, but find a tenebrous goal.

Smoke-clouds cover my face of Spirit's fire;

Naked I move in night’s ignorance deep and dire. ```

67. The boon

```

Scold me, my Lord, untiringly.

Insult me, my Lord, unreservedly.

But, my Lord, do not forget Your Boon.

You told me millions of years ago

That You would grant me the capacity

To love You sleeplessly;

Something more, unconditionally.

```

68. A single human cry

```

A single human cry

Can easily bring down God the Grace.

A single smile divine

Can swiftly transform mortal face. ```

69. God comes to me

```

God comes to me

Precisely in the form I need.

Him I must feed

The way His Heart wants me to feed. ```

70. Music-Band

```

God came to me

With His Music-Band

To bless my heart's

Orphan, homeless land. ```

71. How?

```

If your mind is empty of

Lofty resolve,

How can your human life

Ever evolve? ```

72. I am a thief

```

I am a thief; I steal every night.

Each theft of mine kindles a thrill

On the Supreme’s all-fulfilling Eye.

What do I steal?

His Grace, my meal.

Why do I steal?

He compels me so.

Perhaps He finds no other way

To feed my Spirit’s hunger stark

With the Nectar of His shadowless Ray.

```

73. No bondage-chain

```

Fastest runs to the Goal Supreme

My Lord’s Love-Train.

Singing and dancing, therein my breath —

No bondage-chain. ```

74. Mind-tears versus heart-smiles

```

My newness-mind-tears

Keep me glowing.

My fulness-heart-smiles

Keep me sailing. ```

75. Smiles and miles

```

Each time

My happiness-heart smiles,

My life

Enjoys expanding miles. ```

76. Beauty's light

```

Every morning my eagerness-heart

Rockets my prayers to the summit-height.

Empty of darkness-night my life,

Within, without, His Beauty’s Light. ```

77. My dedication

```

My dedication,

My God-manifestation-bloom

To reserve a seat

In God’s hallowed Heart-Room. ```

78. Complains and contains

```

My mind

Complains, complains, complains.

My heart

My Lord’s Fondness contains. ```

79. I am a fool

```

I am a fool, they say.

Am I, am I a fool?

I go to my inner School;

God's Eye my eternal Day.

To help my Lord in His Play,

To found His Smile on earth,

My divinely human birth.

Yet I am a fool, they say. ```

80. Detachment-songs

```

In the morning,

My life and my heart together sing

Detachment-songs

From world-castigation.

In the evening,

My life and my heart together sing

Detachment-songs

From world-ovation. ```

81. Infinity expands

```

My soul-Immortality

Flies and flies.

My life-Eternity

Cries and cries.

My heart-Infinity

Expands and expands.

My mind-stupidity

Everything disbands. ```

82. Never the same again

```

Never the same again,

Lost peace restored.

Never the same again.

Never the same again,

Lost joy regained.

Never the same again.

Never the same again,

Lost power reborn.

Never the same again.

```

83. Ever the same again

```

Ever the same again,

My lost Truth rediscovered.

Ever the same again.

Ever the same again,

My forgotten Self remembered.

Ever the same again.

Ever the same again,

My lost Goal regained.

Ever the same again.

```

84. The road to Eternity

```

Each mortal dream

Awakens a deathless Reality.

Each fleeting day

Paves the road to Eternity. ```

85. I love the children of God

```

I love the crying children of God

Because they are pure.

I love the waiting children of God

Because they are sure. ```

86. God's right-hand man

```

Every soul

Is a God's right-hand man.

Every heart

Is a God's masterpiece-plan. ```

87. Empty of choice

```

O when my mind

Is empty of choice,

My Lord teaches me

To sing with no voice. ```

88. Breathless cries

```

O when my heart

Has sleepless, breathless cries,

My Lord shows me

With no wings how He flies. ```

89. Impurity-insecurity

```

Sleeplessly I keep my mind

Free from impurity-ties.

Breathlessly I keep my heart

Empty of insecurity-cries. ```

90. Meeting-date

```

O never, never mix with hate.

God will cancel His Meeting-Date. ```

91. Silence-seas

```

Do you not have

Even an iota of peace?

Did you look inside

Your heart's silence-seas? ```

92. Ego-lion

```

Oh, permit not your ego-lion to roar,

If you desire your heart-bird to soar. ```

93. Fulfilment-shrine

```

Where is the shrine

Of fulfilment?

Inside the temple

Of self-effacement. ```

94. He has breathlessly drunk

```

He has breathlessly drunk

All the milk of Heaven-sky.

He now gladly drinks

All the venom of earth-sigh. ```

95. My dream

```

Mine is a birthless

And deathless dream:

To breathe the Heart

Of my Lord Supreme. ```

96. God-smiles

```

Mine is the joy

That ever shines at God’s Golden Feet.

Mine is the task

To give God-smiles, whomever I meet. ```

97. My Father-Son

```

O Supreme, my Father-Son,

Now that we two are one

And won by each other, won,

Nothing remains undone. ```

98. Into the world I came

```

Into the world I came,

No, not for earthly fame,

No, not for Heavenly gain,

But to be the love-fountain. ```

99. When my song is sung

```

Lord, when my song is sung,

What shall I do?

“My child, do not delay.

Cry for your new dawn-dew.” ```

100. Silence

```

From the Silence Unknowable

To the Sound knowable I came

To play and sing and dance

With a tiny, fragile frame,

And build a rainbow-bridge

Between Heaven and earth

For my sweet Supreme to travel

And flood all-where His Birth. ```

Editor's introduction to first edition

Sri Chinmoy began writing poetry as a youth in India.

His intense yearning to know God found spontaneous expression in words and music, first in the subtle, flowing rhythms of his native Bengali and later in the formal eloquence of the English language.

Since 1964, Sri Chinmoy has resided in New York.

During the last three decades, there has been an efflorescence of creative energy in his life — not only in poetry and other forms of literature, but also in music and art.

In each sphere, he has unfolded the infinite variety of experiences that comprise the spiritual journey: the search for truth and beauty, the struggle to transcend the limitations of the mind, and the ecstatic communion of the human soul with the Divine.

A hallmark of the poet’s early writings is the gracefulness and dignity of his style, which is reflected in his use of traditional metrical movements and rhymes.

In recent years, Sri Chinmoy has evolved another kind of musicality: the flow and focus of his thought is now most often contained within the compass of a single four-line stanza, with nouns yoked together to create a new and powerful vocabulary of the sacred. While many of his poems are written in free verse, Sri Chinmoy’s continuing love for the haunting reverberations of rhyme is represented in this selection.

Editor's note

Sri Chinmoy’s invited lectureships at universities include Cambridge, Harvard, Yale and the University of California at Berkeley (the Pacific School of Religion).

As a visiting poet, scholar and musician in 1998, he has received special awards for his contributions to the arts and to world peace from the Universities of Washington, Texas, British Columbia and Victoria.

In 1993 the Society of Writers at the United Nations offered him their Award of Excellence.

Among Sri Chinmoy’s recent publications are The Wings of Joy (Simon & Schuster, 1997), Heart-Songs (Hazelden, 1996) and The Garland of Nation-Souls (Health Communications, 1995).

In addition to his creative endeavours, Sri Chinmoy is widely respected as a philosopher of peace.

He is the 1998 recipient of the Pilgrim of Peace Award (Italy).

He has had fruitful peace dialogues in person and through correspondence with many world figures, such as President Mikhail Gorbachev, Mother Teresa, President Nelson Mandela and the third Secretary-General of the United Nations, U Thant.

He has also offered Peace Concerts around the globe.

It is said that every age calls forth its poet.

That ours is an age beset by spiritual despair and the absence of peace, both inner and outer, none can doubt.

It is to such a world that Sri Chinmoy offers his devotional poetry, that we may rediscover the deeper significance of our lives here on earth in our eternal union with the Divine.

```

No more my heart shall sob or grieve.

My days and nights dissolve in God’s own Light.

Above the toil of life my soul

Is a Bird of Fire winging the Infinite.

```

From:Sri Chinmoy,Two thirsty eyes, Agni Press, 1998
Sourced from https://srichinmoylibrary.com/tte