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.