Sri Chinmoy Poetry

Sri Chinmoy has written many volumes of poetry. My Flute< is a collection of poetry from Sri Chinmoy's earlier period of writing poetry.

Sri Chinmoy has had an interest in poetry since his early childhood. Poetry runs in his family with his fathers and 2 brothers also composing many poems. He began writing poems in his early teen years. These early poems have become some of Sri Chinmoy’s most love poems, they are expositions of his inner meditations and experiences. They are striking in their boldness and power, a capacity a poet can only offer through personal experience. As the words of the ‘Absolute’ demonstrate.

‘No mind, no form, I only exist;    
Now ceased all will and thought.
The final end of Nature’s dance,
I am It whom I have sought.’

– From My Flute

Sri Chinmoy’s poetry is all related in some way to spirituality . Some of his poems describe the spiritual experience that an aspirant might pass through, including the yearning and loneliness felt when a seeker feels his separation from the source.

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.

– Struggle’s Gloom from My Flute

On the other hand there are also ecstatic revelations of the interior spiritual consciousness. The great Sufi poets speak of being drunk with the wine of the beloved, a metaphor for the indescribable ecstasy of divine communion. Sri Chinmoy is also a poet who has scaled the lofty heights of mysticism, using different terms he moulds the English language to combine the essence of spiritual vision.

‘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.’

Sri Chinmoy is a great writer of prose having completed many 100s of books but he says it is poetry which gives him the most joy.

‘The prose writer has thunder-legs. 
The poet has lightning-feet.    
Arriving at the destination, the prose writer declares,
“I have become.”    
Arriving at the same destination, the poet whispers, “I eternally am.”    

– Sri Chinmoy (1)

Like many poets nature has been a source of inspiration for the poetry of Sri Chinmoy. In particular Sri Chinmoy the Seer Poet can see the hand of the divine in all aspects of life. He writes poetry not for intellectual seekers or to explain, he merely uses poetry to offer a glimpse into the world of mysticism.

‘Poetry is not something to be understood.    
Poetry is not something even to be felt.    
Poetry is something to discover one’s universal Reality.    
Poetry is something to uncover one’s transcendental Divinity.’

Sri Chinmoy (1)

(1) + (2) Extracts from “Poem and Poet” Blessingful Invitations From The University-World

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Sri Chinmoy Poetry

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