Every aspect of nature raises a corresponding vibration in the human soul. In Sri Chinmoy’s world there are no fences between these two separate realms of experience. Together they form a perfect whole. This synthesis allows him to move from a descriptive mode to a meditative mode without disjunction.
THE GOLDEN MORNING IS BLOSSOMING
Be not afraid
Of the pre-dawn darkness.
The golden morning
With its rainbow-dance
Is blossoming faster
Than you can imagine.
(6586)
Initially we read this poem on a purely literal level to mean that the hour is darkest before the dawn breaks. At a certain point in the poem, however, and without any obvious structural articulation, we make the transition to an inner context where we discover the poet’s splendid assurance to the seeker that the light of spiritual understanding shall soon dawn inside him. The resultant effect is that both the inner and the outer are held in delicate balance.
Another universally intelligible symbol which is used widely throughout Ten Thousand Flower-Flames is that of plant life. The beauty and unfolding perfection of a flower are a perfect metaphor for the spiritual heart:
SELF-MASTERY MEANS
Self-mastery means
The joy of the heart’s
Blossoming rose-petals.
(5941)
This haiku-like poem, with its intuition of identity between the rose and the heart, is a flawless triumph of expression. No words can account for the peculiar thrill that stems from our subtle sensation of the rose-petals opening one by one. It is the life-principle of the rose and not any detail of its appearance which is enshrined in this miniature poem.
The heart which remains unopened is pictured by the poet as a plant in which this same life-principle is fading:
YOUR HEART-PLANT IS WITHERING
Because of your suspicion-mind,
Your poor heart-plant is withering
Before it can burst into flower.
(5906)
In the last days of winter, each branch becomes laden with tiny buds. They swell with the promise of spring. Everything gathers in readiness for a sudden and radiant blossoming. The heart, too, knows its springtime when all its secret possibilities are revealed. To have prepared for such a moment and then to experience its loss is the feeling of this poem. The perishing of the heart is presented with a deceptive simplicity, using the fewest of words. And yet these brief touches awaken an immediate and full response. We are filled in the first instance with a deep sadness and then with an imperative urge to reverse this process and instil new life into the heart-plant.
Much of the power of this use of symbolism comes from Sri Chinmoy’s innate tactfulness and restraint. Using single words with extreme delicacy he unveils layer upon layer of meaning. Nothing in his verse runs to excess. Where there is least, there is most:
LIKE THE SLEEPING FLOWERS
Like the sleeping flowers
Of the silence-evening,
My snow-heart shall rest
In the ever-blossoming Dawn.
(273)
The heart is enfolded in God. The poet’s wordless unity with the “sleeping flowers” has shown him the path to that state. By pathetic fallacy he invests the flowers with the peacefulness of human slumber. It is an eternally moving expression of serenity.