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Poet and Poetry

A lecture by Sri Chinmoy
in Kane Hall at the University of Washington, Seattle

 

A poet has three very special names: yesterday's delight-seeker, today's delight-seer and tomorrow's delight-harbinger.

There are three types of poets: ordinary poets, great poets and seer-poets. Ordinary poets grow like mushrooms in infinite number. The great poets are few and far between and are also known as born poets. The seer-poets are of the supreme heights. A seer is he who envisions the present, the past and the future all at once.

Poetry has three very special names: inspiration-mind, aspiration-heart and beauty-life.

God wanted to have a very, very special garden of His own. He asked His poet-son to be the gardener. He also asked the gardener to create a garden as beautiful as possible and, at the same time, as small as possible.

The poet-gardener devotedly asked God if there was any esoteric purpose for the garden to be smaller than the smallest and beautiful, more beautiful, most beautiful.

God said to His newly appointed poet-gardener, "What is poetry, if not My real Beauty? Do you not recall what My English poet-son Keats' immortal utterance is: 'A thing of Beauty is a Joy forever'? Beauty and Infinity are inseparable. I want to reveal the Infinity that I am through the finite that I equally am. Therefore, I am asking you to make Me a garden of beauty unfathomable and beauty unsurpassable."

God further said to His poet-gardener, "My son, once you have accomplished your task to My Satisfaction, I shall entrust you with another task. You will be the only flute player in My garden. Infinity's Beauty-lovers from the four corners of the globe shall visit and drink deep the beauty of our garden."

The difference between a prose writer and a poet is this:

A prose writer is a marcher. He marches and marches along Eternity's Road to arrive at Infinity's Goal.

A poet is a singer. He sings and sings along Eternity's Road to arrive at Infinity's Goal.

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."

I have been writing prose and poetry for over half a century. I am very happily and proudly sailing in the boat of Coleridge:

"I wish our clever poets would remember...Prose: words in their best order. Poetry: the best words in the best order."

Again, it is illumining to read a comment by Rabindranath Tagore, the master poet of India, who won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1913. He writes:

"I wonder why the writing of pages of prose does not give anything like the joy of completing a single poem. One's emotions take such perfection of form in a poem, they can be taken up by the fingers, so to speak. While prose is like a sackful of loose material, incapable of being lifted as you please."

Poetry I read to lighten my mind and enlighten my heart.

Poetry I read to sweeten my bitter mind.

Poetry I read to replace my heart's sorrows with my soul's ecstasy.

Poetry I read to transform my human mind-jungle into my divine heart-garden.

Poetry I read to fathom my own inner worlds and to scale my own higher worlds.

Poetry I read to see and feel Divinity's Beauty inside the heart of humanity.

Poetry I read to watch the hide-and-seek of my heart's tearing tears and my soul's blossoming smiles.

Poetry teaches my heart infinitely more than it preaches to my mind.

Ancient poetry pined for inner freedom. Modern poetry hungers for outer freedom.

Since, according to many, I am a modern poet, I do not know how I can escape from Goethe's irrefutable observation of modern poets: "Modern poets mix too much water with their ink."

Ancient poetry paid more attention to the Unknowable than the knowable. Modern poetry maximises the power of the knowable and allows the Unknowable to remain a stranger, a perfect stranger.

The ancient poetry-boat was quite often overloaded with poetry-passenger-readers. The modern poetry-boat is quite often empty of poetry-passenger-readers.

Now what about those who are not poetry-lovers at all — no, not even poetry-readers? They do not care in the least either for ancient poetry or for modern poetry. Dear audience, with your soul's permission, I am crying ditto to a statement by Anthony Hope Hawkins:

"I wish you would read a little poetry sometimes. Your ignorance cramps my conversation."

Ancient poetry loved to swim in the sea of tears. Modern poetry loves to surf in the ocean of laughter.

Poetry tells the world, "O world, I am a flower. Appreciate my beauty if you want to. Enjoy my fragrance if you want to. But do not expect from me anything more than my beauty and my fragrance. If you expect anything more, you will be doomed to disappointment."

Poetry tells the world, "O world, I can teach you how to smile, even while you are crying."

In my case also, I have my own ancient poetry and modern poetry. My ancient poetry embodied my inner cry:

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.

My modern poetry reveals my inner smile:

I am flying and flying
On Immortality's Wings
In Infinity's Sky.

When I started my poetry-journey, my inner experiences and realisations spontaneously expressed themselves through the power-aspect:

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.

...

My spirit aware of all the heights,
I am mute in the core of the Sun.
I barter nothing with time and deeds;
My cosmic play is done.

As I continue my poetry-journey, my inner experiences and realisations spontaneously express themselves through humility and devotion-aspects:

My Lord,
Your Love has entrapped my eyes,
My heart, my life and my all.
May I be allowed to entrap
The hallowed dust of Your Feet?

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.

When nationalism captures my mind, I soulfully sing:

I dearly love my India
And her age-old silence-peace.

When internationalism embraces my heart, I offer my sleepless and breathless prayer-song to God:

My Lord, do give me the capacity
To wipe every tear
From every heart.

Wherever I go, Nature's beauty enters into me and feeds me with abundant inspiration:

The sky calls me.
The wind calls me.
The moon and stars call me.
The green and dense groves call me.
The dance of the fountain calls me.
Smiles call me, tears call me.
A faint melody calls me.
The morn, noon and eve call me.

Everyone is searching for a playmate.
Everyone is calling me, "Come, come!"
One voice, one sound, all around.
Alas, the Boat of Time sails on.

It was Horace who offered us the following illumining definition of poets: "Poets, the first instructors of mankind."

May I add,

Poets, the first God-Beauty-lovers
of God-Nature-creation.

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.

I am deeply honoured to be talking to you in this august hall dedicated to Theodore Roethke, the esteemed American poet who was a beloved professor and poet-in-residence at this university. According to my humble opinion, Theodore Roethke was truly a God-Beauty-lover in God the creation. I would like to end my talk today by invoking the presence of his bright illumination-soul: "The Light Comes Brighter," which celebrates the simultaneous arrival of Spring in nature and in the mind:

"...soon a branch, part of a hidden scene,
The leafy mind, that long was tightly furled,
Will turn its private substance into green,
And young shoots spread upon our inner world."

My highly esteemed Chairman Shawn Wong, my lovingly revered Professor Charles Johnson, your university is unique for its motto: "Lux Sit," "Let there be Light." Your love of light, both the light of the soul and the light of the mind, is supremely unparalleled. Today you are kindly, compassionately and blessingfully honouring me with The Light of Asia Award. In silence-secrecy-ecstasy I am sowing the seeds of my heart's gratitude-tears and gratitude-smiles in your beauty-non-pareil-heart-gardens.

---

Published in Blessingful Invitations from the University-World

 

Listen to Sri Chinmoy’s lecture...

 

Diary Entry

by Sri Chinmoy
while in residence at the Sri Aurobindo Ashram in Pondicherry, India

1 April

I was working in Nolini-da's room near his bed, sitting on the floor. Ranju-da came inside and said to his father: "X. Datta has criticised Rabindranath mercilessly."

Nolini-da said: "It always happens like that. People are so ungrateful. He and Basu have become well known in the literary world by virtue of Rabindranath's grace. Now look how ungrateful they are! They speak ill of Rabindranath." Then he turned towards me and said: "Chinmoy, I once got a few reprints of my article "Rabindranath, O Uttar Pakkha."Do you know where the article was published?"

"Yes, it was published in Rabindra Bharati and the editor of the magazine is A. K. Ghose."

"Ah," he said, "now it is your turn to retrace them."

It took me about fifteen minutes to find the reprints. He was very happy that I had found them. He said to me: "Why do I waste my time searching for things? Why do I not wait for you? Why do I make the same mistake again and again?"

---

Published in A Service-Flame and a Service-Sun

 

Mahatma Gandhi

A lecture by Sri Chinmoy
at the University of West Indies in Mona, Jamaica

 

Sri Chinmoy is invited by Dr. Varraa on behalf of the Ministry of External Affairs of the Government of Jamaica, West Indies, to address the public during Jamaican’s Centenary celebrations of the birth of Mahatma Gandhi.

 

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, better known as Mahatma Gandhi. "Mahatma" means "Great-Souled One", His followers and admirers adorned him with this significant title, but the Mahatma’s soulful humility vehemently disclaimed the title. To be absolutely correct, Mahatma Gandhi had two more names: Ahimsa, Non-Violence and Satyagraha, Soul-Force.

Gandhi announces: "The votary of nonviolence has to cultivate the capacity for sacrifice of the highest type in order to be free from fear. He recks not if he should lose his land, his wealth, his life. He who has not overcome all fear cannot practice nonviolence to perfection."

Gandhi proclaims: "Satyagraha is a force that works silently and apparently slowly. In reality, there is no force in the world that is so direct or so swift in working."

Gandhi was born with a silver spoon in his mouth, but both of his parents cared nothing for the so-called material wealth. They did care for something else and it was the inner wealth. In his life, his father’s indifference to material wealth, his father’s politically oriented brain, tremendous will, his mother’s piety, purity, simplicity, sincerity, inner hunger and conscience of the soul and his wife’s inspiration, dedicated service and constant sacrifice loomed large.

He went to England to study law when he was nineteen years old. Three years later he returned to India and started practising law. Alas, in those days, in his legal practise, he received not the garland of victory, but of sad failure. Such being the case, he wanted to be a high school teacher in Bombay. Here too, God denied him this new career. Gandhi’s application to be a teacher was not favoured with acceptance. But in 1893, opportunity knocked at his life’s door. The heart of this young barrister cried with his fellow-countrymen, who were victims of ruthless injustice in South Africa. He left for Africa. He defended their case, their cause. He helped them and served them. There, in Africa, he gradually became a lawyer of the superlative degree. Mahalakshmi, the Goddess of Beauty and Plenty, blessed his heart with Her beauty and his outer life with plenty. Money, the bird, flew towards him and sweetly sat on his hand. Success, the dog, ran towards him and faithfully sat at his feet. Behind the bird and the dog, a human being from a far-off land came and inspired his aspiring heart and illumined his searching mind to fulfil life’s ideals. Gandhi’s life became the perfect expression of Tolstoy’s inspiration. With a view to practising his ideals, he cast aside the crown and throne of his outer achievements. He embraced Ahimsa, He embraced Satyagraha. He was one of those who awakened the slumbering nation and inspired the oppressed and depressed country to come out of the foreign yoke. He was successful. By this time, his frail body was no longer a stranger to inhuman brutalities. He had to undergo, several times, severe prison sentences. On being imprisoned for the first time, on January 11, 1908, he remarked:

"We shall feel happy and free like a bird even behind the prison walls. We shall never weary of jail-going. When the whole of India has learned this lesson, India shall be free. For, if the alien power turns the whole of India into a vast prison, it will not be able to imprison her soul."

His release from last imprisonment was on May 6th, 1944. He spent no less than two thousand three hundred and thirty-eight days in jail.

His outer life suffered. His inner life triumphed. His life and his soul’s conviction became indivisible. His country’s independence became the object of his soul’s concern. His country’s ‘untouchables’ became the object of his heart’s concern. Bharat Mata placed her hands of Infinite Bounty on the head of her devoted son. His country’s untouchables discovered their haven in his boundless heart.

For the redemption of the untold sufferings of the untouchables Gandhi’s heart of supreme sacrifice voices forth:

"I do not want to be reborn, but if I have to be reborn I should be reborn an untouchable so that I may share their sorrows, sufferings and the affronts leveled against them in order that I may endeavour to free myself and them from their miserable condition."

We all know the supreme necessity of humility in a seeker’s life. No humility, no realisation of the Infinite Truth. One must needs be as humble as the dust. But Gandhi’s humility does not want to stop even at this point. He says: "The seeker after truth should be humbler than the dust. The world crushes the dust under its feet, but the seeker after truth should so humble himself that even the dust could crush him. Only then and not till then, will he have a glimpse of truth."

The world, especially the Christian world, is afraid of the consequences of sin. A Christian is more concerned about his sin than any other man on earth. The Indian heart in Gandhi speaks about sin: "I do not seek redemption from the consequences of sin, I seek to be redeemed from sin itself."

Again a Vedantin, a student of Vedanta, will proclaim that there is no such thing as sin. It is merely a play of ignorance.

Gandhi throws abundant light on conception and continence: "I think it is the height of ignorance to believe that the sexual act is an independent function necessary like sleeping or eating. The world depends for its existence on the act of generation and as the world is the playground of God and a reflection of His glory, the act of generation should be controlled for the ordered growth of the world. He who realises this will control his lust at any cost, equip himself with the knowledge necessary for the physical, mental and spiritual well-being of his progeny and give the benefit of that knowledge to posterity."

Mother Earth is truly proud of her son Gandhi’s sincerity. He said: "For me the observance of even bodily brahmacharya has been full of difficulties. Today (1929) that is to say, at the age of sixty, I may say that I feel myself fairly safe, but I have yet to achieve complete mastery over thought, which is so essential."

Gandhi married at the age of 13, He was blessed with four sons.

Fasting played a major role in Gandhi’s life. His sound advice is "eat only when you are hungry and when you have laboured for food." This reminds me of a Zen story:

The Chinese Zen master, Hyakujo, used to work very hard with his disciples, even at the ripe old age of eighty. He used to prune the trees, clean the grounds, trim the garden and so forth. His disciples were extremely shocked at these exertions. They knew well that it would be of no use to suggest to him to stop working, for he would turn a deaf ear to them. A brilliant idea flashed across their minds. They hid away his tools. The Master played his part. He stopped eating. This went on for several days. The disciples discovered why he was not eating. They returned his tools to him. With a smile, he took the tools and exclaimed, "No work, no food!" He began eating as usual.

Gandhi often fasted to get things done in his own way. Let me tell you two amusing but significant incidents in Gandhi’s life. His wife once saved up twenty-five rupees to spend for a special purpose. When Gandhi came to know about it, he brought his poor wife’s conduct to the attention of the public. He was furious. He exposed her in his weekly Young India under the caption, "My shame, my sorrow," and observed a three-day fast! He had taught his wife that there should be no personal belongings and no hoarding up of money.

On another occasion Gandhi took a vow that he would fast unto death. Tagore immediately said to his countrymen having realised the gravity of Gandhi’s vow: "He has come after a thousand years. Shall we send him back empty-handed again?"

Gandhi’s Gurudev, Rabindranath Tagore, once remarked:

"I differ with Gandhi in many respects, but I admire and revere the man highly." In one aspect of life at least, we see the difference between these two great souls. In renunciation, Mahatma found his deliverance, while Tagore found his deliverance in the fruit of fulfilment. Tagore sings, "Deliverance is not for me in renunciation, I feel the embrace of freedom in a thousand bonds of delight." The Upanishadic seers sing through the heart of Mahatma, "Tena tyaktena bhunjita" "Enjoy through Renunciation",

Prime Minister Nehru, during his speech to the Congress of the United States on October 13, 1949, spoke about the Father of the Indian Nation:

"In India there came a man in our own generation who inspired us to great endeavour, ever reminding us that thought and action should never be divorced from moral principle, that the true path of man is the path of truth and peace. Under his guidance we laboured for the freedom of our country, with ill will to none and achieved that freedom. We called him reverently and affectionately the Father of our Nation. Yet he was too great for the circumscribed borders of any one country and the message he gave may well help us in considering the wider problems of the world."

Four days later, on October 17, while addressing Columbia University, Nehru again spoke about his mentor, guide and master:

"The great leader of my country, Mahatma Gandhi, under whose inspiration and sheltering care I grew up, always laid stress on moral values and warned us never to subordinate means to ends. We were not worthy of him and yet to the best of our ability we tried to follow his teaching. Even the limited extent to which we could follow his teaching yielded rich results."

Krishnalal Shridharani, the well-known author of "My India, My America" has something amusing but striking to share with us:

"Once I was invited by a decidedly liberal minister to address a church group. After my speech on Gandhi and his non-violence, we withdrew to my host’s office. He was full of praise for Gandhi’s character as a man, his high ideals, his conduct, but he sincerely doubted that Gandhi could ever enter heaven until the burden of the Hindu saint’s sins was delegated to Christ. I answered that according to my way of thinking, Gandhi’s life had been the nearest approximation of the "Christ life" and I also expressed some fear about the chances of the rest of us modern morals if Gandhi were to be denied heaven!"

Now let tis hear from Gandhi what he has to say about his own salvation or about his going to heaven:

"It was impossible for me to believe that I could go to heaven or attain salvation only by becoming a Christian. When I frankly said to some of the good Christian friends, they were shocked. But there was no help for it."

Gandhi says about religion: "After long study and experience, I have come to the conclusion that (1) all religions are true; (2) all religions have some error in them; (3) all religions are almost as dear to me as my own Hinduism."

Each individual has the right to have a God of his own. He is competent enough to define God according to his inner receptivity and outer capacity. Gandhi’s God is nothing other than truth. He says: "There are innumerable definitions of God, because His manifestations are innumerable. They overwhelm me with wonder and awe for a moment stun me. But I worship God as Truth only."

Some of the world figures have called him the Saint Paul, Saint Thomas and Saint Francis of Assissi of the modern era and I call him the Pacific Ocean of Heart’s Love and Soul’s Compassion. Perhaps I am wrong. Perhaps I am right. But I am adamant in my assertion that Mahatma Gandhi is not the exclusive treasure of India, but a peerless pride of mankind and will remain so, down the sweep of centuries.

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Published in AUM – Vol. 4, No.11, June 27, 1969

 

 

Sri Chinmoy holds a copy of his 412th book, Earth’s Cry Meets Heaven’s Smile, part 3.