Poems, on a Trip to India
by Sri Chinmoy
Sri Chinmoy writes fifteen poems (306-320) on a plane ride from Calcutta to Hyderabad.
306. What is the matter with you?
What is the matter with you?
Why don’t you apply
Your volcano-mind
To conquer
Your undying wolf-thoughts?
A marathon run
Is not fun.
It is an unspeakably
Serious matter.A marathon run
Turns me into an orphan-life:
No father, no mother,
Helpless and hopeless.
I go to God twice a day.
In the morning I go to my Beloved Supreme
With the surrender of a tennis ball.
He tells me I am on my way to perfection.
In the evening I go to my Beloved Supreme
With a basket of gratitude-flowers.
He tells me I am all perfection.
Man’s destination
And
God’s destination:
Man’s destination is God’s
Satisfaction-Smile,
God’s destination is man’s
Perfection-smile.
Your thoughts have made
Your breath impure.
Your deeds have made
Your life insecure.
But your heart’s mounting cry can easily make
Your breath pure
And
Your life secure.
Just give your heart a chance.
Since I am no longer
A disciple of ignorance,
God, the real God, has accepted me
As one of His true disciples
And is now offering my aspiration-life
A free pass to Heaven.
The grip of attachment may please me
For a fleeting second
But
The grasp of detachment
Can surely and easily please me
For my entire life.
Who is not a disciple?
Even God Himself is a disciple.
He is a disciple of my tiny gratitude-flame
And I am, indeed, a disciple
Of His own Eternity-Infinity’s
Immortal Perfection-Sun.
You want to conquer
The perpetual fever of jealousy?
I will tell you a great secret:
Just love and become one
With your oneness-heart.
To steal a look at God
Is to realise sooner than at once
The pangs of your thorny present
And the ecstasies of your flower-future.
I am fulfilled twice:
Once when I stand up
For poor humanity,
Once when I stand up
For the unfulfilled God.
Why am I so tired?
I am tired
Not because I work very hard,
Not because I sleep too little,
But because I think too much.
Don’t take a late start.
You may lose the race altogether.
Keep your love-devotion-surrender
Always on the alert.
Then you cannot have a late start.
319. To see his Compassion-Feet
To see the Compassion-Feet
Of your Lord Supreme
Is to end the undying game
Of your ignorance-dream.
Inside I live
Soulfully and sleeplessly.
Outside I give
Generously and unconditionally.
Published in Ten Thousand Flower-Flames, part 4
Sri Chinmoy writes fifteen poems (321-335) on the plane from Hyderabad to Madras.
His is a mistake-proof life.
All life’s questions
He has perfectly answered.
To him, his God is no longer
A forgotten Face
But
An extremely familiar Face.
There is no real reason
Why you cannot make
Your mind peaceful,
Your heart blissful,
Your life restful,
Your soul successful,
Your God blessingful.
Just replace your venom-doubt
With your sterling faith.
Yours is a life
Of a hundred indecisions.
How do you expect
An iota of God-Vision?
Because you and tension live together,
Transformation-light
And
Perfection-delight
Prefer to remain great strangers to you.
325. The power of your sound-life
The power of your sound-life
Fascinates my soul.The power of your silence-life
Feeds and fulfils my soul.
Silence I need
To sow the vision-seed.Sound I need
To grow the mission-plant.Surrender I need
To climb the perfection-tree.
What is a human mind?
The unreality-fear that lengthens
Our journey’s course.What is a human heart?
The reality-cheer that shortens
Our journey’s course.
328. The Tent of my Beloved Supreme
Inside the Tent of my Beloved Supreme
Everybody and everything can gladly stay
Except the old and unhealthy habits
Of the unprogressive mind.
The real reality
Is a simple simplicity,
And not a complexity.
Complexity has never been related to reality.
330. Time for Heaven to descend
It is time for Heaven to descend.
Him to greet,
Fly with your soul
Bravely and immediately.
Him to serve,
Dive with your heart
Prayerfully and soulfully.
A doubting mind
Is responsible
For a sinking life
And a dying heart.
My Lord Supreme
Will definitely arrive.
Only one sad thing:
I do not know
The exact hour
Of His arrival.
Each life sighs
Unmistakably.Each body dies
Eventually.Each soul flies away
Immediately.
In our desire-life,
Nothing to equal hope-tower.
In our aspiration-life,
Nothing to equal promise-power.
O descending Blue,
I love you.O ascending Green,
I love you.O divine Gold,
I love you.
Published in Ten Thousand Flower-Flames, part 4
Sri Chinmoy writes thirty poems (336-365) at the Hotel Savera in Madras.
Nothing compels you to shiver
In helpless slavery.
Just don your God-given
Aspiration-bravery.
You call it hesitation
And
I call it confusion.You call it confusion
And
I call it suspicion.You call it suspicion
And
I call it perdition.
Earth is the teacher
That teaches us how to be
Experience-tree.Heaven is the teacher
That teaches us how to become
Realisation-fruit.
339. My sweet Lord's Satisfaction-Delight
Not because
Of my aspiring consciousness-light
Has my sweet Lord granted me
His Satisfaction-Delight.
No, no, that is not true!
He has granted me His Satisfaction-Delight
Because He does not have anything else
To do with my life.
When he withdraws
His outer sound,
You cry.
You say he does not care for you.When he withdraws
His outer silence,
You say he simply hates you.
You tell me,
What can and what will he do,
Your poor Master?
341. Do you need a pure heart?
Do you need a pure heart?
Then daily make your mind clean.
Do you need a smile from God daily?
Then keep your heart aspiring ceaselessly.
You are now ready for the divine life.
For you, the false sweetness of your desire-life
Has turned into real bitterness
Unspeakable.
The desire-life desires to regain
Its lost heritage:
Ignorance-night.The aspiration-life longs to regain
Its lost heritage:
Immortality-Shore.
Loss is gain,
Gain is loss.
Doubt-loss, faith-gain;
Desire-gain, perfection-loss.
I am watching my past.
It is simply awful.I am watching my present.
It is not at all hopeful.I am watching my future.
It is soulful, plus fruitful.
I see a garden
In your face.I see a rose
In your heart.I see celestial beauty
In your eyes.
Three are the playmates of the soul:
Simplicity-life,
Sincerity-heart,
Purity-breath.
348. I thought of doing something
I thought of doing something great.
God said: “Good, My son!”I thought of doing something good.
God said: “Excellent, My son!”I thought of becoming a selfless server.
God said: “Perfect, My son!”
Just sing a soulful song
Together with your oneness-heart.
Lo, you have far surpassed
All the barriers of confusion-night.
What does a desire-life get?
A caged success.What does an aspiration-life become?
An uncaged progress.
Only those are God’s favourites
Who are supremely just
And offer others
Their rightful earnings.
To have oneness-peace
Only with the strong
Is your cleverness-height.To have oneness-peace
With all human souls
Is your inner sun’s wisdom-light.
Your ignorance-night tells you
There is no home for you,
There is no home.Your wisdom-light tells you
The entire universe is your home,
The entire universe.
Peace, what is it?
God’s favourite boon.Peace, where is it?
In God’s Self-giving Infinity.
What you have
Is a vain thought.
What you are
Is a selfish aim.
Do you think
That God will grant you
His Satisfaction-Bliss?
No, never!
356. I love three dreams of mine
I love three dreams of mine:
The dream that tells me
My mind shall succeed,
The dream that tells me
My heart shall proceed,
The dream that tells me
My soul shall always precede.
357. Do give me another chance
O my soul, do give me another chance.
This time I shall definitely
And unconditionally become obedient.
My new obedience
Will breathe in an eternal breath.
O my foolish body,
Are you not ashamed
Of your most deplorable conduct?
Because of your lethargy,
Because of your unwillingness,
I am falling,
Falling all the time;
I am failing,
Failing everywhere.
The only way to go
From passion to perfection
Is by illumining the lower self
And feeding the higher Self.
Try not to put others right;
That is God’s task.
Try to put yourself right;
Indeed, that is your God-ordained task.
Aspiration tells me that my God is
Compassion-Mother.
Realisation tells me that my God is
Liberation-Father.
God-oneness tells me that my God is
Perfection-Friend.
An uninspired mind,
An unenlightened heart,
An unrealised life,
An unmanifested soul,
An unfulfilled God
Together tell the same sad story.
His vision-eye is a constant prey
To his teeming imperfections.
Therefore,
Someday, somehow, somewhere,
He will dance with perfection-sun
In the world of Infinity’s
Silence-Sound.
A moment of inspiration
Powerfully feeds my aspiration-flames.
A moment of aspiration
Unmistakably expedites my realisation-sun.
My body is sleeping.
Therefore
I am crying.My vital is fighting.
Therefore
I am crying.My mind is doubting.
Therefore
I am crying.My heart is hesitating.
Therefore
I am crying.
Published in Ten Thousand Flower-Flames, part 4
Tea and Coffee Stories
by Sri Chinmoy
Many times I have told about my tea and coffee experiences in this lifetime. In my Chittagong life, tea and coffee were forbidden. Nobody drank tea or coffee in the family. Only when guests came, they were served tea. So we never had the taste of tea or coffee.
When I was in the Sri Aurobindo Ashram, secretly I took tea twice in twenty years. The first time, I did not like it. The second time, I asked for a little more sugar. I was denied. So that was the end of my tea experiences.
Then, when I came to America, I became fully acquainted with tea and coffee. I even went so far as espresso! I read and also I heard that Indian doctors say if you have a little fever, then tea is very good. So I started drinking tea, since it has a medicinal effect. Alas, alas, when you start some bad habit, it is very difficult to stop. So I took tea mostly four or five times a day, up to a maximum of eight times. Bad habit, bad habit!
It is said that tea will give you strength and energy. Many people believe that God gave tea some hidden strength. God alone knows!
Let us not try to discover
Instant God-realisation,
Like instant coffee.
Let us only bring to the fore
Our heart’s sincere inner cry. *
* Poem no. 18979, published in Seventy-Seven Thousand Service-Trees, part 19
In 1964 I came to America. It was the first time I had been in an aeroplane. I was travelling by myself. I was half in this world and half in another world. At one point, the stewardess brought me a cup containing hot water. On the side was a tea bag. I tore open the bag and emptied it into the cup. Then all those little, little leaves were swimming in the cup. The whole cup was full to the brim with leaves!
My stupidity never ended! I made a complaint to the stewardess. Of course, she knew that I was the one who had made the mistake, but she did not say anything. She took away that cup and brought me another cup of hot water and a fresh tea bag. She placed the tea bag inside the water and held it there until the tea was ready. Then she left.
When I watched her making the tea, I knew what I had done wrong.
The African ambassador takes tea
Once a few ambassadors from various countries came to see me. One African lady was either an ambassador or a deputy ambassador. We were all eating together in Annam Brahma Restaurant and I was sitting beside her.
Strangely enough, when the time came for her to take tea, she tore open the tea bag and emptied all the leaves into her cup. I could not believe it! Can you imagine, right in front of me she did the same thing that I had done on the plane so many years before. But she did not make any complaint. She was drinking the tea very happily!
After drinking tea for a few years in America, I made tremendous, tremendous ‘progress'! From tea, I graduated to coffee. As in the spiritual life I made very fast progress, so here also in the caffeine world I made very fast progress!
Afterwards, I used to take two or three cups of coffee on a daily basis for years. Sometimes I used to take cappuccino. Then, I think it was in Brazil, I made faster than the fastest progress. I began taking the kind of coffee that President Gorbachev’s wife used to drink — espresso. At that time my progress was really something. I was getting my ‘Master’s Degree’!
This incident happened in Brazil. I ordered espresso and the man brought me such a tiny container. It was so small! While I was standing at the counter waiting to pay, I just took a sip. Then, right in front of the counter, I started jumping up and down, up and down! My chest was burning so powerfully. It took time for me to control my heartbeat. Then I gave the man his money.
So this is my caffeine business — tea, coffee, cappuccino, espresso. Of all of them, espresso is the worst. I took it only a few times, but that was enough!
Now my sister Lily has disappeared from the earthly scene, but in those days, since I had passed my tea examination, she used to make tea for me whenever I visited her at the Ashram. But it was controlled. Twice a day she would make it — morning and evening — and sometimes only once. By that time she herself had started drinking tea, but only once, perhaps, or twice a day.
Talking about quantity, Swami Vivekananda used to drink tea thirty times or even more during the day. Somebody used to make him a big flask and then he would take cup after cup. He started drinking tea in his childhood. Later he took both tea and coffee, but specially tea.
Then, when he came to America, he discovered ice cream, which we call kulfi. How he loved and adored ice cream! In the winter, he would go with his admirers to a restaurant. The first thing he would ask for was ice cream. The restaurant manager would say to him, “At this time of year?”
Then Swami Vivekananda wanted the ice cream to be served before the main course. They would tell him, “But this is dessert!”
“No, I like it,” was Swami Vivekananda’s answer. So, because he liked it, everybody had to take ice cream before the real meal. Love is like that.
How I stopped drinking tea and coffee
This is the story of how I stopped drinking tea and coffee. What happened is this: in June 1999 I was returning home from Pondicherry, where I had been visiting my brother Mantu. When I opened the door of the V.I.P. lounge in the Bombay Airport, I clearly saw my sister Lily there, right in front of me. As you know, she left the body on May 16th, just two weeks before. She said to me, “Come inside and sit down.”
So I took my seat. My legs were stretched out in front of me and I was quite comfortable. I was passing the time reading and drinking coffee. Then I saw my sister on my right side. I was seeing her very clearly. She was chatting with me in the inner world. All of a sudden, we were joined by my sister Ahana, who passed away in July 1950, just a few months before Sri Aurobindo. Sri Aurobindo left his body in December of that year.
Ahana is the sister who taught me my childhood songs and about whom I always tell one famous story. Once I was quite upset with my family and I refused to eat supper. So I went to bed and pretended to be asleep. Ahana came and told me that only great singers can sing while they are asleep. I wanted to prove that I was a great singer, so I started singing. Then I was caught! She carried me off to eat my supper. She died at the age of twenty-four or twenty-five and she is still in the soul’s world.
Anyway, this sister came out of the blue and started massaging my head so affectionately while Lily was talking. One soul was chatting with me, another soul was massaging me. Can you imagine? Perhaps you will call it my mental hallucination.
Why was Ahana massaging my head? When my plane arrived in India a few days earlier, two videotapes fell from the overhead compartment onto my head. Ahana was telling me that she was observing inwardly when this occurred. She said, “I was so shocked!” She was so affectionately massaging my head where the videotapes had struck it. We were talking and she was narrating various childhood incidents.
Then she stood in front of me and began begging and pleading with me. She said, “Madal, please tell me that you will never again drink tea and coffee — never! I have not made any request to you in the past. My only request to you is this: never touch tea, never touch coffee! They are not good for you.”
I looked at her and said, “Now that you are not in the land of the living, I will listen to you. Since you are begging me, I will never, never touch tea or coffee again. But had you been on earth and if you had made this request, I would have taken double the quantity!”
I never listened to my sisters! Any desire they had for me was not fulfilled. In fact, I did diametrically the opposite thing!
Since that experience, which was so vivid, I have become a saint! I have given up drinking tea and coffee. I am still keeping my promise. How obedient I am to my sister Ahana! So many times people have begged me to take just a little tea, but I said I will never touch tea and coffee again and I have to take my promise seriously. My promise is my promise. When you make a solemn promise, specially to your dear ones, you have to keep it.
Published in My Book of Tea and Coffee Experiences