I believe that man to be Sri Chinmoy. In him we shall find a seer-poet able to encompass all that the Vedic sages of the past strove to utter, a man whose vision is ample enough to capture the rich and varied inner life, a poet to capture the ascent of the soul and its consummation in God and a prophet to say how it shall be for all men hereafter. Such is Sri Chinmoy – the timely man, the reconciler, the master spiritual poet of our age.
It is impossible to imagine a spirit better prepared in advance for this great office than Sri Chinmoy. For the past twenty-six years, through his poetry, his music and his art, he has been speaking to the soul of man in a voice of direction and authority. In each field he has attained the classic heights of purest revelation. Nothing in him is bound by culture, time or place. He has untied the knot of the senses, of the personality and of the intellect, of all that is limited and finite and has realised the eternal life of the soul. In each form of artistic expression this realisation has been linked with a powerful and abundant expression. In the field of art, Sri Chinmoy has created over 135,000 mystical paintings. These are images from the inner world of consciousness whose lambent energy bypasses our intellectual appreciation in order to touch our souls directly. In a similar way, Sri Chinmoy has composed musical pieces that seem to capture the elusive harmonies of the soul. Finally, in over seven hundred and fifty books of varying literary forms such as poetry, drama and short story, the poet has endeavoured to unveil the quintessence of truth in all things.
Ten Thousand Flower-Flames is the crown of these creative manifestations. It is Sri Chinmoy’s most comprehensive revelation of truth and his most sustained work. It is a work, which maybe aptly described as “world literature”. No narrowness, limitation or distortion cling to it. Here the banner of the soul is once more raised aloft. It flies freely before the eyes of the world – all may see it, all may know it, all may own it:
TWO SUPREME COMMITMENTS
Two supreme commitments
I have made:
I shall carry my heart to Heaven
To spread humanity’s cry of helplessness.
I shall bring down my soul to earth
To spread divinity’s light of fulness.
(5098)
This world literature has carved for itself an appropriate universal language that is characterised above all else by its simplicity and power. The simplicity is that which lies on the far side of spiritual experience when each word is suffused with new meaning and freshness; the power is the poet’s ability to confer upon these words the full measure of his vision and thereby elevate them into the realm of sacred speech or mantra. The voice that emerges is the spontaneous voice of the inner being:
MY SOUL SINGS
To unfold the heart-flower
Of my life,
Every day my soul sings
A sun-song to my Beloved Supreme.
(5651)
The “sun-songs” of Ten Thousand Flower-Flames make their appeal not to our ears only, nor merely to our imagination. They steer a course directly to our soul. The more rapidly they can do this, the more they become what Sri Aurobindo referred to as “a scarcely felt vaulting board for a leap into the infinite.” Unlike many other modern poets, Sri Chinmoy will not be halted at the level of perfect technique. Nor does he fasten our attention exclusively on the object or idea. Beyond these lies the great soul-vision and through countless tiny motions – flower upon flower, flame upon flame-we draw near to it and realise it in all its mystery:
TO SEE YOUR GOAL
To see your goal
Far in advance,
You must devotedly sit
On the wings
Of your vision-soul.
(1478)
The vision of the poet inspirits man; it awakens the eternal hunger in the depth of each human heart; like Indra’s thunderbolt, it shakes the very roots of ignorance-tree, dispelling darkness and upholding truth:
IN JUST A TWINKLING
In just a twinkling of its vision-eye,
The world-soul has made
The world-body beautiful.
(5066)
The world-soul operating through the poet paints the universe in ever-new and ever-bright colours. It is the richness of the inner vision that makes the outer world glow. When the whole of society is permeated by the soul-vision, then shall it reach the acme of perfection-the perfect flowering of the human spirit:
THE SONG OF PERFECTION
If your heart really loves
The mount of vision,
Then your life can easily,
Soulfully and satisfactorily
Sing the song of perfection.
(6282)
Sri Chinmoy places this perfection in an inner condition. It is the soul’s endless growth in perfection that provides the epic substance for Ten Thousand Flower-Flames.