The Absolute: Collected poems of Sri Chinmoy

By Sri Chinmoy

This book is a collection of Sri Chinmoy’s poems selected from his entire body of poetic work that spans over six decades. He started writing poetry from the age of thirteen and continued writing even in the last year of his life. As a child he was thoroughly trained in the craft of the poetic art. All his early poems were written from within the poetic restraints of meter and rhyme. Only later in his poetic career he wrote in free verse. Speaking of his poetry, Sri Chinmoy said, “Throughout my poetry-journey, my poetry-tree has cherished various branches: philosophy, prayer, religion, spirituality, my love of Nature’s beauty, my love of word-making, which the English language indulgently allows me to explore, and my abiding love, concern and hope for this world of ours.” Because of the shear originality, sincerity, honesty, and truth in his poems, the cadences of Sri Chinmoy’s poetry, like the poet himself, will travel through time for centuries and centuries to come offering hope, strength and salvation to many an earnest traveler in his or her journey through life.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Gatekeeper Press
• Release date: Apr 7, 2022
• ISBN: 9781662924712

Book preview

ABOUT SRI CHINMOY

(1931 – 2007)

A renaissance man of our modern times, Sri Chinmoy was a poet, an author of essays, a composer, an artist, a sportsman, and a lover of humanity. Sri Chinmoy always considered himself a student of peace. He was always open to new ideas and implementing new ways to make our world a better place. He established a wide range of cultural, humanitarian and spiritual programs on every continent. In new ways, these projects foster the ancient and universal values which underlie all great cultures and faiths.

Sri Chinmoy wrote several books of prose and poetry, composed over 21,000 pieces of music, played over 777 Peace Concerts in venues like Lincoln Center and Carnegie Hall and was an avid runner, tennis player and champion weightlifter. He had offered hundreds of lectures in every state of the United States and throughout the globe at such distinguished universities as Harvard, Yale, Oxford, Cambridge and Tokyo. At galleries worldwide, including the Carrousel du Louvre and UNESCO in Paris and the Russian National Museum of Decorative Arts, selections of Sri Chinmoy’s paintings and 16 million Dream-Freedom-Peace-Bird drawings have given joy and inspiration to countless people.

Copyright © 2022 Sri Chinmoy Centre

Sri Chinmoy’s first book, Meditations: Food for the Soul, was published in 1970.

All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced without express written permission of the Publisher.

Library of Congress Control Number: 2022930641

ISBN (hardcover): 9781662924705

eISBN: 9781662924712

Printed and bound in the United States of America.

Aum Publications

86-10 Parsons Blvd.

Jamaica, New York 11432

USA

CONTENTS

Introduction

Sources

Poems

The Absolute

Where is the Strength?

Your body was not meant

It steals into my heart

One thing haunts me

Apocalypse

O heart, my heart

Tell me, God, am I the best?

Thy Love to bind

Immortality

I butchered your ignorance

I give, I live

Golden mystic sun

My secret life, my open life

A tiny heart

That was the day of my golden dreams

My name, my age, my home

O Bird of Light

I please my hunger stark

Your choice

In the grand old days

I do not need

Too great for haste

What are they

What a rarity

The miracle power of infinitesimal grain

Quick march

Somewhere I lost myself

You want to know

Pretence no more

My Lord in silence

Conscience

The smoke of ideas

A symbol of promise

No haste

Revelation

The beauties of New York City

O love me more

I had a dream

Family divine

Arise! Awake!

O silent dust

You will have my bosom-key

The Truth-Emperor of Love

I am Thy servant

Immortality’s dance

At last I shall listen

Here is the key

You are imperfect

A gift worth taking

O watcher

A little

Who is my coach?

Although I brag

I see in him no more a Beast

Don’t fool yourself!

In the core of Silence

I admire

From death to life

The reason why

All is uncertain

Struggle’s gloom

Your life a God-Dream

Behold your life

O doubt, my tricky foe

Each human life

My mind will tell me

Beauty

Visions of the emerald-Beyond

Scoffers, beware!

The lover eternally is

Hide-and-Seek

My nature old

A truth and a lie

No mind can achieve

Seeker-Lover-Master

Magnificent disaster

The touch of the stars

In my heart’s secret depth

This is my fate

In vain I try

Between nothingness and Eternity

The poverty of a saint

In my letter to God

I am not afraid

A world I had

Never to meet again

Let my vision dive

Peace is pure love

Your silence

Angels speak

Nature’s beauty Supreme

Frustration-night dethroned

In my hermit heart

Lift up your eyes

In a tiny Himalayan cave

The burial hour

An eternal note of sadness-night

Sweetness-fountain

Transformation-Light

How I deal with God

My soul shall always share

I long to be one

What you truly need

Each life

Vision-skies

I gazed and gazed

Compassion

I know, I know

My life becomes a sea of Delight

Nature is at once

I love the beauty of of sleeping flowers

The shallow mind

The beginning

The hero marches along

Truth

My longings

I was a chainless soul

Before the end of day

We are unkind

Never shall I be a quitter

Strengthen me

My Lord, I miss You

Frail thoughts shall fail

Like you I wish to be

Two distant friends

I shall definitely succeed

Silence is beyond

I need

Nothing dies

The faintest

Futility, my body’s life

O failure’s broken wings

Worlds not realised

If you have to fly

My depths

He sang his swan song

An indifference-mind

Silence

My life’s helpers

I am always on my Maker’s side

Pablo Casals

Her way of measuring

My life swims

How can I be with you always?

I saw in the silence

Echoes

Bubbles of human Philosophy

The beckoning sky

A wicked thing

The road to eternity

My Lord

I love

When I Love

Infinity expands

God-thought has taught me

I look beautiful

A moment’s love

O walls of history

You always keep your poise

Ages in his face

My prayers

On my way back to life

They never learn

Your need and love are one

I feed a flame within

Truth-life begins

Dream not of any other World

I see a garden

You jumped to glory

What you did

The child believed

The collector

Faith is its own Redeemer

I do the impossible, how?

Thought

How?

Faults to hide

Earth liberates

My longings

Silence and beauty

The love of day

The Ideal of forgiveness

To Sri Aurobindo

The youth to the player Eternal

His eyes of diamond peace

Sri Aurobindo

In his shadow

I see no foe

Pure as prayer-cry

Life-flower quickly fades

Beyond the reach of Heaven

He found, He finds

His conversation

Everything is Perfect

I hope to learn

One promise

In silence

Silence speaks, Silence leads

My heart has heard the Call

A yawning gulf

Two things ruined

Life is like love

They came to me

Everything returns

Be Thou

Two thirsty eyes

As a seeker-soul

I become

Freedom is my hope

Let others serve you

Beauty’s eloquence

For higher things

My days and nights

Do not give up

When my song is Sung

The world

Chance has a blameless hand

Man’s ways to God

A tortuous stream

My life-realisation

He has

It is another thing to fall

Your jealousy crucified Christ

O Saviour

My inner wealth

Transformation, transcendence and beyond

Am I too late

If you want to remain always happy

How to know the singer from the song?

Remember that!

In my heart-dawn and soul-sun

The moment I say and feel

Success

Ramakrishna

Man, be careful of woman

The throne of love

I love my duty’s Flow

Easy

Thy Wisdom

Our minds must Kneel

Wisdom is realisation

O Light of the Supreme

Each song is a flame

I build my hope-tower

The Collector

His heart is a most Powerful

The Mother Supreme

I must retire

The power of Snow-white joy

Hope

Nothing I do can satisfy you

One man-like God

Each human life

In body and soul I know

The Home of awakened mankind

The voice of my Silence

Behold your foe

O dreamers of peace

Each child

Faith cures my Sorrows

I have chosen

The writer

O beginningless Beginning

Child-like innocence

An open invitation

The click of a camera

God

Fear

Your rising glory

O greedy hands

Spirituality

The garden of love-light

A perfect attitude

My secret and sacred bird

Only inspiration born on high

Their only friends

Life’s perfection-road

India is not just a place

I dearly love my India

I could not realise God

God opens His morning Eye

To Kamakura

They are but one thing

When my mind prays

God’s nationality

I longed to give my heart and soul

Yet I love you

O Mother Sweet

Strength indomitable

A new friend

I may not know what it means

One aspiration-drop

Protection offered with no fee

The sport

Pessimist, Optimist, Realist

Floor of silence-height

God’s absence and God’s presence

A new world of peace

I know the secret desires of your heart

A feeble cry, a sweet Smile

My life-desert

O matchless beauty’s smiling sky

If I can

Heart and soul, truth and peace

We must learn once more

She lived and died

I came

Opinion is a pen-knife

Heavenly time and earthly space

Salute

Genius is an ocean greyhound

A daughter’s confessions

Perfection is the freedom

O lustre

The fount of life

Only to be

Be loving

Peace smiles

They learn more

My Mission

My Lord

The song of evolution

The Truth

Leave me alone

The cave-life

My bosom pines

The swords

I really feel sorry for you!

In