Between August 12th and 13th, Sri Chinmoy wrote 630 rhymed poems, which were published in the book A Soulful Cry Versus A Fruitful Smile. It was an epic feat of meditative concentration and inspiration. Sri Chinmoy also oversee a team of overseas disciples who managed to publish the book within 24 hours, working through the night to get the book ready.
At my brother Mantu's repeated request to write rhymed poetry I have written these short poems. I dedicate these heart-offerings of mine to my brother's great seeker-soul.
Chinmoy 12 August 1977
1. A SOUNDLESS VOICE
A soundless voice
I always need.
My mind of noise,
My heart of poise,
To lovingly feed.
181. HOW TO GET BACK
How to get back
Life’s lost charm?
You can get back
Life’s lost charm
If you do not harm
Your childlike inner cry
And childlike outer smile.
Life’s lost charm
Easily you can regain
If you refrain
From thought-temptation-chain.
Janaka was involved in the team of visitors working on the book, this his introduction to the first edition.
Editor's introduction
The first thing that would strike the reader picking up this book, would probably be its bulk. A quick glance at the contents would show 630 titles listed. Sri Chinmoy is clearly the most prolific of poets. But someone unfamiliar with his writings might be forgiven for thinking these represented a lifetime’s work, the labour of many years. As such they would stand as a considerable achievement.
But how astonishing is the truth, that these poems are not the work of years, or months, or even days, but were in fact written in a twenty-four hour period, from midnight to midnight on a single day!
And for Sri Chinmoy this was the latest in a long line of marathon creative sessions: 16,000 paintings in a day; 843 poems in a day. The figures roll easily off the tongue, but to see the reality is something else. It takes the breath away.
The poems in this volume are part of an even longer project which Sri Chinmoy set himself — to write 1,000 poems, each with a rhyming structure. (This is in honour of his brother Mantu who has a preference for such forms over more freely constructed poems.) Sri Chinmoy set a date, some months ahead, for the achievement of his target. But within a few days, in spite of keeping up with his intensely busy schedule of activities, he had made the time to write some 500 rhyming poems. Then at midnight on Friday 12th August 1977, he started work on the sequence published here. He began writing them out by hand, and covered hundreds of sheets from notebooks. Then as the flow of inspiration increased, he recited the poems directly onto a tape, to be transcribed.
Disciples worked with him, round the clock, typing, editing, proofreading, so that the book could be printed and published the following day! We were able to help with the work, to share in this process of becoming, this amazing flow of creative energy that infused even the most menial job with a meaning and significance. We share in the flow, were part of the whole.
And at midnight on August 13th, 24 hours after starting, the poet pronounced his verdict on his achievement.
“Not bad,” he said.
Not bad!
With a book of poems as large as this, especially where the individual poems are short, the tendency is to skim through, read them greedily and quickly, or simply dip into the book at random, reading here and there. It is part of the beauty of there being so many that there is something for every taste, and, more important, something for every need. Time and again I have had the same experience, of opening the book of Guru’s poems at random and finding exactly the right words to speak to me at the precise moment. Or in skimming, I am suddenly arrested by a line or a phrase that seems to reason, to glow, to throw light on all that I have been reading. For in a very real sense, the part contains the whole, and each of these short poems contains in essence, distilled, all of Sri Chinmoy’s wisdom, his philosophy. They are gems of many facets.
And there are many moods here, many modes of expression, from the playful and humorous to the profound and majestic. they are now wry, now instructive, now with the scriptural quality, the simple dignity and clarity that tells us, “This is the highest Truth.”
Always they are a delight, and the self-imposed stricture of making the poems rhyme simply adds at once to the entertainment and illumining fun; delight on delight for the ear and the eye.
This delight, and the ease of the flow, may even tend to hide the tremendous technical achievement. Over one thousand poems. Six hundred and thirty of them in a day. And all of them rhymed. There is a verbal agility and sureness of touch of a very high order, a limitless inventiveness. Sri Chinmoy uses words with the same dexterity with which he wields a paintbrush or draws a bow across the esraj.
In these poems, the flow is structured, the energy is manifest in a tighter form, taking on the limitation of rhyme. But the limitation has itself become inspiration, part of the game. The form becomes a vehicle for his endless play.
Those of us who are caught up in that play, in the dance of the worlds he is opening up to us, bow to Sri Chinmoy, in gratitude.
Janaka
