6401. A white bird

I am praying
To have a white bird
Flooded with purity
To fly in my heart’s blue sky.

6402. I have been unable to manifest

Alas, because of my weak body,
Vital, mind and heart,
I have been unable to manifest
My Beloved Supreme
According to the promise I made Him
Before I came into the world-arena.
Alas, alas!

6403. The divine philosophy

The human philosophy runs:
The mind cannot be separated
From doubt-thorns.
The divine philosophy runs:
God will be satisfied
Only when He can show the mind
That it has the capacity to go beyond
Its own self-styled discoveries —
Doubt, suspicion and frustration —
And sing and dance
With God’s perfection-children —
Peace, Light, Delight and Power.

6404. Most precious wealth

My child, I have given you
My most precious Wealth:
My Heart’s Satisfaction-Smile.
Will you not give Me
Your most precious wealth:
Your heart’s oneness-cry?

6405. Prayers of my mind

My Beloved Supreme
Most sincerely loves me.
Therefore, He does not answer
Quite a few prayers of mine,
Especially prayers of my mind.

6406. Somebody will succeed

I may fail.
You also may fail.
But somebody will definitely succeed
In proving to the world at large
That the Supreme’s Message
Is absolutely perfect.

6407. No strong liking

Since I have no strong liking
For my inner cry,
I do not know how my Lord Supreme
Can ever grant me
His Infinity’s Perfection-Core.

6408. Uprooted hope-tree

Your mind lives
In the house of negligence.
Your heart lives
In the house of impatience.
Therefore, you do not realise
That you have already uprooted
Your life’s hope-tree
For good.

6409. Nobody is safe!

Nobody is safe!
Even excellent instruments
Of the Lord Supreme,
Devoted pilgrims on the spiritual path,
Can become lame and crippled
And be totally devoured
By ignorance-forces.

6410. The ferocious ignorance-tiger

The ferocious ignorance-tiger
Is all around us.
This tiger may not be about to leave us
Right now,
But eventually it has to leave us
For good.

6411. You will be liberated

Now that you have discovered
The incense-purity inside your mind,
You will be liberated from the prison-cell
Of your fast-approaching spiritual death.

6412. Tears are born

Vital tears are born
In the soil of self-deception-night.
Psychic tears are born
In God’s God-Eternity’s
Self-amorous Delight.

6413. You will ruin your life

Yesterday you disobeyed
Your Inner Pilot.
Today you do not believe in
Your own inner capacity.
Tomorrow you will utterly ruin
Your life.

6414. A smile carries

An outer smile carries
Today’s earthly dawn to Heaven.
An inner smile carries
Tomorrow’s Heavenly sun to earth.

6415. The joy of the unknown

At long last my mind
Has gone beyond itself
To grant me the joy
Of the unknown.

6416. No escape

Conquer ignorance here and now!
If you think you can go elsewhere
And escape your enemy,
You are totally mistaken.
For even while you are planning
Your escape,
Your enemy will devour you.

6417. Just remind yourself

When ignorance-tiger attacks you,
Just remind yourself who you are:
The supremely chosen instrument
Of your Beloved Supreme
For His divine Manifestation
On earth.

6418. To talk to God

Why do you hesitate
To talk to God?
He never demands
Silence from you.
On the contrary,
He is expecting you
To say something to Him,
Even if it is not something nice.

6419. My love for God will grow

If at every moment
I can convince my mind
That I am of God alone
And I am for God alone,
Then my love for God will grow
And inundate my life
With light and delight.

6420. My Eternity's only Way

My Lord’s Heart of Compassion-Beauty
Not only saves my life time and again
But also assures me
That it is my Eternity’s only Way
And my Immortality’s only Goal.

6421. When you forget

When you forget
Your connection with God,
Ignorance attacks you
Because it sees a yawning gulf
Between your aspiration and God’s Compassion.
But if you can strengthen
Your oneness with your Beloved Supreme,
Ignorance is bound to leave you alone.

6422. My own imperfection-spots

What do I see in others?
My own imperfection-spots.
What do I see in God?
My own dissatisfaction-panther.

6423. If your heart is inspired

If your heart is inspired
To cry like an orphan,
Then God the Father and God the Mother
Will definitely come to you
And teach you how to dance with Them
Their own Immortality-Dance.

6424. Pay attention to your own race

As you run along the Path of Eternity,
Pay all attention to your own inner race.
If you try to carry
Your slower brothers and sisters
While running fast, faster, fastest
To your goal,
Your own frustration will come forward
Again and again
And unmistakably delay
Your spiritual progress.

6425. You have your own name

Just because another seeker
Has failed in the spiritual life,
Does that mean you also will fail?
No, you have your own name.
When your Beloved Supreme
Calls you,
No other person will come
And appear before Him.

6426. Every day is your birthday

Every day is your birthday
When you are good.
Every day is your death day
When you are bad.

6427. Today I am appreciating

Yesterday, for the first time,
I appreciated something in myself
That I had never before appreciated,
And that was my thirsty heart.

Today I am appreciating
Something in myself
That I never thought I would appreciate
In this life,
And that is my Lord’s
Uninvited Compassion-Tears.

6428. What God looks like

You want to know
What God looks like.
I tell you,
He looks exactly like
The beauty of your hope
And
The purity of your promise.

6429. God came to me

Yesterday God came to me
With a blue and hungry heart.
Today God has come to me
With a green and nourishing hope.
Tomorrow God will come to me
With a golden and fulfilled promise.

6430. You will be called

If you stay in the Golden Boat,
You will be called.
But if you are no longer in the Boat,
Why should the Boatman call you?
So stay with your Beloved Supreme,
O seeker, stay in His Golden Boat.

6431. He has more than enough

If you have faith in the spiritual Teacher
You have chosen,
Then your sincere devotion to him
Will make you feel
That what he has inwardly and outwardly
Is more than enough for you.

6432. The human in us

The human in us
Wants to know
God’s secret Dreams.

The divine in us
Wishes to become one with
God’s open Realities.

6433. An inner will

If you have an inner will,
Then use it properly!
Use it to control
Your outer life.

If you have an outer will,
Then use it properly!
Use it to feed and please
Your inner life.

6434. Your inner life will be bankrupt

If you withdraw from your inner bank
All the good qualities
You have put into your spiritual life —
Gratitude, love, devotion, surrender,
Concern and affection —
And do not deposit anything
In their place,
Then your account will become empty
And your inner life
Will be totally bankrupt.

6435. Withdraw and deposit

If you withdraw one dollar
From your inner bank account,
Then the next day, without fail,
You should be sure to deposit
Five dollars in its place.
This will be all your own wealth.
Nobody else can claim it.

6436. Your soul's will

You can unmistakably know
Your soul’s will
By discarding once and for all
The messages of your binding
And blinding mind
And by consciously and sleeplessly
Loving and embracing
The messages of your crying
And dreaming heart.

6437. The highest will win

The seeker’s highest reality
And his lowest reality
Are all the time fighting against each other.
For the sincere seeker,
The highest is bound to win
In the near future.
For the insincere seeker also,
The highest is bound to win,
But in the far distant future.

6438. Absolutely necessary

It is not necessary
For me to know
What God the Perfection
Does for me.
But it is absolutely necessary
For me to know
What I the imperfection
Do for God.

6439. Your own dream

If your life is your own dream
And not God’s Dream,
Then you are bound to live inside
Your own mind’s illusion-prison.

6440. How can you survive?

How can you survive
The attacks of ignorance-night
When your mind loves to dance
In darkness
And your heart is too timid and weak
To protest against your mind’s behaviour?

6441. All for God

If you know that God
Is all for you,
Then you are also bound to be
All for God,
No matter how much others
Speak ill of God,
No matter how much others
Speak ill of you.

6442. An added opportunity

To have a true friend
Is to have an added opportunity
To increase your spirituality,
For two friends can easily
Offer to each other
What they inwardly receive.

6443. Each good thought

Each good thought is a new Heaven.
Each new Heaven is a new perfection
Of God’s Vision
And a new satisfaction
Of God’s Reality.

6444. When I look at God

When I look at God,
I see His Eternity’s sleepless Eye.
When I look at myself,
I see my insecurity’s helpless “I”.

6445. Walking with God

If your heart-delight
Is walking with God,
That means your body-consciousness
Also is walking with God.

6446. An unparalleled opportunity

When I live inside my mind,
I offer my Lord Supreme
An unparalleled frustration-prison.
When I live inside my heart,
I grant my Lord Supreme
An unparalleled opportunity
To receive me, shape me,
Mould me and make me
An exact prototype of His own
Heaven-Vision in earth-Reality.

6447. The hope-world

As long as I live in the hope-world,
My Lord Supreme will appear
Time and again.
But when I no longer live in the hope-world,
Not only will my Lord disappear,
But also my own Heaven-free reality
Will disappear.

6448. Frustration and satisfaction

Frustration and satisfaction
Stand before you side by side.
It is up to you to choose.
While you are cherishing frustration,
Satisfaction remains out of reach.
But the moment you cast frustration aside,
Satisfaction is yours.

6449. Your soul suffers

Your mind does not aspire.
Therefore, your heart suffers.
Your heart aspires,
But not to the satisfaction of your soul.
Therefore, your soul suffers.

6450. The wrong road

You are walking
Along the wrong road
Because you are not feeding
Your mind’s little thoughts
With your purity-sincerity-flames.

6451. Promotion and protection

Promotion:
This is what my mind demands
From the world.

Protection:
This is what my heart needs
From Above.

6452. The beggar

In the morning
I am the beggar
Of my Lord’s Compassion-Eye.

At noon
I am the beggar
Of my Lord’s Oneness-Heart.

In the evening
I am the beggar
Of my Lord’s Satisfaction-Breath.

6453. When you love yourself

When you love yourself
And nobody else,
You must know that
Your heart is not,
And perhaps will never be,
As vast as you think.

6454. Two torturers

His clever vital
Is torturing his uncertain mind.
His intelligent mind
Is torturing his loving heart.

6455. Attack the negative forces

If you know that a negative force
Is bound to attack you,
Do not delay!
Attack that force
Before it attacks you.

6456. The hour of battle is now!

If you see the ignorance-tiger
Standing in front of you
About to attack,
Do not run away.
Do not wait for the hour
When Peace, Light, Bliss and Power
Will descend into you in infinite measure.
Do not wait until you have more strength
In your mind and heart.
The hour of battle is now!
Just conquer and destroy the tiger
Immediately.

6457. The manufacturer

Nobody is my enemy
Except my mind,
The manufacturer
Of my restlessness-life.

6458. The prison of impurity

If your mind enjoys
Living inside the prison cell
Of dark impurity,
How can poor God grant you
His Heart’s Love-Nectar-Delight?

6459. My life's hesitation

My life’s hesitation
Is cleverly beckoned
By my mind’s imperfection.

6460. An institution-mind

An imperfect
Institution-mind
Is a perfect
Destitution-life.

6461. I am so glad

I am so glad that my mind
Is now totally blind.
It can no longer see
The falsehood-mountain.

I am so glad that my life
Is now totally blind.
It can no longer see
The deception-volcano.

I am so glad that my heart
Has regained its perfect vision.
It can not only see God once more
But also feel God’s Satisfaction-Heart.

6462. A great difference

There may be a great difference
Between the peace
That I receive from within
And the peace
That I offer without.

6463. I love the world

I love the world
Not because the world
Is trying to be perfect.
I love the world
Because my Lord is evolving
Through the world’s constant failures
And rare successes.

6464. Now I am looking

I have already found my Lord
Inside my heart-garden,
And now I am looking for Him
In the depths of my mind-forest.

6465. One divine message

One divine message is flowing down
And touching my earth-home:
My Lord Supreme will make my life
His own Illumination-Joy.

6466. The dance of darkness

Because I have not disciplined my life
I am forced not only to see
The dance of darkness
But also to participate in
The dance of destruction.

6467. A special message

The blue bird of my green heart
Has a special message today:
Before long I shall see
The lotus-red Feet of my Lord Supreme
Inside my surrender-life and gratitude-heart.

6468. Man is happy when

Man is happy only when
He has his powerful imagination with him.
God is happy only when
He has His fruitful Satisfaction with Him.

6469. To acquire joy

There are many ways for a seeker
To acquire overwhelming joy
Inside the depths of his heart.
But the easiest and most effective way
Is to tell the world:
“I am in you, true!
But I am for God,
I am of God
And I am with God.”

6470. Because of your humility

Because of your flower-fragrance-humility
God enjoys inside you
The Delight of His own Divinity.

6471. My only freedom

My only freedom
Is my constant obedience
To my Inner Pilot.

6472. He has definitely descended

He has definitely descended
Because his mind
Has stabbed his heart.

6473. I do not mind

I sincerely do not mind
Who thinks of you,
So long as you are thought of
Affectionately, sleeplessly
And unconditionally.

6474. My heart's sleepless progress

My heart’s sleepless progress
Is my life’s
Shadowless destination.

6475. You have to cry

When you lose your outer strength,
You can gain it back again
Almost at once.
But when you lose your inner strength,
Recovery is more difficult.
For that you have to cry and cry to God
With all the sincerity
At your command.

6476. Inner wounds

In the outer life
If you do not eat for two days,
Nothing serious will happen to you.
But in the inner life
If you do not aspire for even one day,
All the world’s hostile forces
Can attack you,
And your inner wounds may linger
For many days.

6477. My mind's inspiration

My mind’s inspiration
Is divinely beautiful.

My heart’s aspiration
Is supremely powerful.

My life’s realisation
Is eternally fruitful.

6478. Each man

Each man
Is his yesterday’s
Heavenly promise
And his today’s
Earthly hope.

6479. My Lord has saved me

My Lord has saved me
By fulfilling my heart’s cry.
My Lord has saved me
By refusing to fulfil
My vital demands.

6480. Any change

The mind thinks
That any change
Is painful.

The heart feels
That any change
Is powerful.

6481. A glimpse of reality

A crystal-clear glimpse of reality
Has shown him that each heart
Is a green plant of hope
And each life
Is a blue tree of promise.

6482. The seeds of faith and security

It is the hostile forces
In the inner world —
Not those in the outer world —
That try to take you away
From your spiritual life.
These hostile forces take your faith
And give you doubt,
Take your security
And give you insecurity.
But as long as you are vigilantly cultivating
The seeds of faith and security
In the inner world,
You do not have to worry.

6483. A soulful surrender-smile

The seeker can stop
His yesterday’s inner storms
Only if he knows how to smile
A soulful surrender-smile.

6484. His heart is lost

His heart is completely lost
Between Heaven’s chilling indifference
And earth’s burning attachments.

6485. My mind is demanding

My mind is demanding
A newness-world.
My heart is crying for
A fulness-world.

6486. The coasting of my life

Self-giving is not
The climbing of my heavy body
But the coasting of my light life.

6487. Eagerness for wealth

It is not inevitable
That some people become rich
While others remain poor.
No, it entirely depends on
Their eagerness for wealth.
Even so, your spiritual wealth
Depends on your eagerness
To become spiritually rich.

6488. Your Inner Pilot is not responsible

You may tell the whole world
That your Inner Pilot is not responsible
For your destruction.
You may rightfully blame
Your previous negligence
And present unwillingness.
But do you think that your Inner Pilot
Will be satisfied
Because you are not blaming Him?
On the strength of His Eternity’s Oneness
With you,
He feels your failure is unmistakably
His failure too.

6489. If your heart can bask

If your heart can bask
In its own open smile,
Then all the deathless dreams
Inside your heart
Will blossom into perfect realities.

6490. The flute of satisfaction

His mind enjoys
The trumpet of prophecy.
His heart enjoys
The flute of soul-illumining
And life-transforming
Oneness-satisfaction.

6491. You can easily destroy

With your soul’s mustered might
You can easily destroy
Your mind’s age-long slumber.

6492. Gratitude is an inner flower

Gratitude is an inner flower
That can never die
Once it has blossomed
Inside your heart-garden.

6493. God is your real Friend

Human friends are good
If they inspire and encourage you
On the journey along Eternity’s Road,
But God is your only real divine Friend.

6494. My life needs

My life needs only three things:
An emptiness-mind,
A oneness-heart,
A fulness-soul.

6495. His companions

Oppression’s volcano-mind
And depression’s thunder-vital
Are his inner and outer companions.

6496. If you are ready to suffer

If you are ready to suffer
For other’s misery,
Then you are fiercely thirsting
To disperse
The ignorance-clouds
Of humanity’s cruelty.

6497. A new light

If you can give the hostile forces
A serious warning,
You are bound to see a new light
Inside your heart,
Rising suddenly like the moon.

6498. Talk to God

If you want to have,
Then talk to others.
But if you want to become,
Then talk to God.

6499. My mind's faithfulness

My mind’s faithfulness
Considerably adds to
My heart’s soulfulness.

6500. Your mind is learning

Your mind is learning
The language of surrender-light.
Therefore, your Lord Supreme has granted you
His own Flute of Oneness-Delight.

Editor's introduction to the first edition

This is the sixty-fifth volume in a series of ten thousand “flaming flower-poems” which Sri Chinmoy is placing devotedly, unreservedly and unconditionally at the Compassion-Feet of God, our Beloved Supreme. They stand as a supreme offering from the unfolding beauty of his flower-heart and the flaming heights of his realisation-sun. Indeed, a treasure-tower which will at once be claimed by humanity’s self-ascending cry and Divinity’s God-descending Smile.

Editor's note to cover photo

Ambassador Abdel-Rahman Abdalla of the Democratic Republic of the Sudan to the United Nations greets Sri Chinmoy at a special programme marking the twenty-fourth anniversary of Sudan’s joining the United Nations on 31 October 1980.