The Meaning of My Poems
Question: Could you please speak about the following poem that you wrote on the Christmas Trip?
I need the gods
Of the present
And not the gods
Of the long-buried past
To guide and lead
My present life.23
Sri Chinmoy: The God of the past told me to enter into the Himalayan caves. The God of the present tells me to be in the marketplace. One God says to be in the Himalayan caves. That is the past. The present God says, “No, I want you to be in the marketplace, in the hustle and bustle of life.”
In this incarnation I am asked by God to be for all human beings, to be of service to all human beings. It is very clear, that I am asked to be of service to Tom, Dick and Harry, to be of service to the whole world. That is why He says, “You be in the marketplace.” And the other one, the God of the past, wanted me to be in the Himalayan caves.
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This morning when I was meditating, I got a message: “Today embodies yesterday’s bitterness. And again, today embodies tomorrow’s sweetness.” Today embodies both, yesterday’s bitterness and tomorrow’s sweetness. For me it is very clear. Today embodies both the bitterness of the past and the sweetness of the future.
10 March 2007, Aspiration-Ground, New York
23 Sri Chinmoy, My Christmas-New Year-Vacation Aspiration-Prayers, Part 58, No.33. New York: Agni Press, 2008.
