John Kennedy: the world-treasure-home

Part I — Poems

JKW 1-38. These 38 poems in tribute to John F. Kennedy, Jr. — one for each year of his life — were written by Sri Chinmoy on 23 July 1999.

1.

```

John Kennedy:

The 20th Century choice

Of the American heart.

```

2.

```

John Kennedy:

The 21st Century voice

Of the American soul.

```

3.

```

Your highest height

You surprisingly concealed.

Your deepest depth

You astonishingly concealed.

Why?

To selflessly mingle

And be inseparably one

With the common run. ```

4.

```

You plied your life-boat

Between the simplicity-shore

And the spontaneity-shore.

```

5.

```

Opportunity and prosperity

Befriended you

Right from the very first breath

Of your life.

But you chose your own

Hard-earned capacity

To be your dearest

And most cherished friend. ```

6.

```

In your inner life

You ran unnoticed

On the determination-track.

In your outer life

You played noticed

In the recreation-ground. ```

7.

```

Destined you were

To be a conductor supreme

Of the world-harmony-symphony.

But alas, your fate unknowable

Has made it otherwise.

```

8.

```

You breathed

The ocean-vast breath of oneness.

A rarity, indeed!

```

9.

```

To have a quick, secret glimpse

Of you

Is to proudly enjoy

The morning blossom-smiles. ```

10.

```

Yours is the heart

Of a newness-beauty-dreamer. ```

11.

```

Yours is the soul

Of a fulness-fragrance-seeker. ```

12.

```

Whoever is adoring you

Is worshipping

In the depth of your heart

A yet to be fully manifested

God-Dream.

```

13.

```

Mother’s dream, father’s promise

And sister’s pride

Have been playing hide-and-seek

In your heart-garden. ```

14.

```

In the world-sympathy-consolation-ocean

Your heart-cherished sister, Caroline,

Is swimming fast, very fast.

```

15.

```

May your sister, Caroline,

And you, her fondness-cradle-

Treasure-brother, John,

Together swing in the Heart-Garden

Of Immortality.

```

16.

```

Your heart-intimacy

Smilingly disarmed

Your mind-supremacy.

```

17.

```

The ill-fated human beings

Discovered in you

Their confidence-assurance-

Divinity-panorama. ```

18.

```

To our great joy and satisfaction,

You were wont to consult your conscience

For everything.

```

19.

```

In your outer life

You were the possessor

Of two Heaven-dreaming eyes.

```

20.

```

In your inner life

You were the giver

Of an earth-feeding heart.

```

21.

```

Amidst your admirers and adorers,

All your movements invariably created

An atmosphere of festivity.

```

22.

```

No, no, no!

Yours is not the legacy

Of a futile promise.

Yours is the legacy

Of a yet to be finished

Cosmic play. ```

23.

```

You preferred

The culture-life-creativity-evolution

To the whirlwind of world politics.

```

24.

```

You are at once

America’s hope revealed

And

America’s promise unmanifested. ```

25.

```

My aspiring heart is telling me

That your earth-departure

And Heaven-arrival

Shall convincingly, unmistakably

And eternally remain

An insoluble world-mystery. ```

26.

```

Alas, we are living

In an unfading

Doubt-attraction-invasion-world.

```

27.

```

Alas, confusion-weeds are not removed.

On the contrary,

To our deepest sorrow,

They are fast growing. ```

28.

```

As God has garlanded you

Compassionately and proudly,

Even so, may God garland the tears

Of all American hearts. ```

29.

```

Publicly and openly we see in you

The streaming tears

Of God the creation.

Secretly and sacredly we see in you

The ever-blossoming, ever-consoling

And ever-assuring Smiles

Of God the Creator.

```

30.

```

Continue, continue!

Your soul-music is being heard

By the length and breadth

Of America the Beautiful

And

America the Brave. ```

31.

```

The indomitable spirit

Of your life-partner, Carolyn,

Has not come to a final halt.

Her mind-brilliance and her heart-lustre

Shall permeate the world of creativity

In God’s own Way,

At God’s choice Hour.

```

32.

```

Your earth-bound life is no more

With the fellow citizens

Of your beloved America.

May the Heaven-free beauty-petals

Of Time

Fall into their soulful prayer-hearts. ```

33.

```

Your family-life-tragedies

Have been mind-devastating

And heart-rending experiences

Of America.

Yet, unparalleled shall forever ring

Your family’s inspiration-bells

In the inmost recesses

Of the American heart. ```

34.

```

Kennedy — this very name

Is a Himalayan climb of inspiration,

Aspiration and dedication.

```

35.

```

No hyperbole,

Your Father and Mother

Won the garland of Immortality.

And you, too,

Now have unmistakably won it.

```

36.

```

May our peace-prayers

For your goodness-flooded soul

Reverberate to the limitless

Unhorizoned horizons. ```

37.

```

May your very name,

John Kennedy,

Inspire the American despair-heart

To proudly jump

Into the sparkling enthusiasm-river.

```

38.

```

John Kennedy:

The world-treasure

John, John, John Kennedy, John, John!

America's Dream-Hope-Promise-Dawn.

Sweetness, firmness, newness, fulness.

American heart’s dearness, fondness.

Tragedy tears: the world-treasure.

The Heights of your Soul, beyond measure. ```

Part II — Poems and essay

JKW 39-44. These five poems and essay were written by Sri Chinmoy in India in 1962 and 1963 and published in his book Kennedy: The Universal Heart in 1973.

John-John

```

You were your father’s wonder-cheers;

Now the core of the world is wet with tears.

Because your heart his only home,

All world-thoughts of Truth within you roam.

Because you are the John-John of John,

In you is the light of his promised dawn. ```

Caroline

```

Your father is he

Who sits above Space and Time.

Your father is he

Who drinks Nectar with the One.

On his vision-tree

Grow God's Rhythm and Rhyme;

In his sacrifice,

The promise of the brightest Sun. ```

Jacqueline

```

If dire was the dart,

Stronger was your heart.

If bitter was the frown

Of the sombre Night,

Sweeter was the smile

Of your soulful Light.

If unseen, O world, is Kennedy,

More so is God’s Fulfilment-Tree.

If realised his vision, giant sacrifice,

Closer are the blessings

Of the golden skies.

Jacqueline, to the world you offered

Your very own.

Bathed in your tears and courage,

Today’s world is grown.

```

Unique

```

Kennedy is unique.

Why?

God kindled him with His Dream.

On him God showered

His Blessings divine,

Thickly,

Lavishly,

Significantly.

Kennedy is unique.

Why?

God threw on him

The burden of the world at large,

Smilingly,

Consciously,

Inevitably.

Kennedy is unique.

Why?

His soul visioned Tomorrow's Dawn,

Far beyond the flight of imagination,

Far above the strongest investigation,

Deep within the core of transformation. ```

Senator Edward Kennedy3

```

Bright was his star,

Faster has he run,

Deepest is his vision-eye.

Four Smiles of God:

Joe, Jack, Bobby, Teddy.

Three Smiles of God we now see

With the inner eye,

One with the outer.

Teeming responsibilities

And streaming sorrows

Have befriended him.

An indomitable spirit within

And

An indomitable spirit without —

Edward Kennedy, Edward.

Eternity’s forward march, forward.

```

JKW 43. revised in New York, USA↩

John Fitzgerald Kennedy

John Fitzgerald Kennedy, President of America, prince of high idealism, freedom incarnate, helper of humanity.

The Inaugural Address of Kennedy on 20 January 1961 ,is eloquent evidence that the mantric utterance is no longer India’s monopoly.

There are sentiments in that soul-stirring address that are as deep as the Atlantic in their outlook; ideals as high as the Himalayas and resolutions as powerful as atomic power.

> “...

> my fellow Americans, ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country.”

This ringing call for self-giving to the Motherland is a reminiscent echo of the Seer-Voice of India’s soul — Sri Aurobindo — when he was speaking to India’s young hopefuls more than half a century ago:

> “There are times in a nation’s history when Providence places before it one work, one aim, to which everything else, however high and noble in itself, has to be sacrificed.

> Such a time has now arrived for our Motherland when nothing is dearer than her service, when everything else has to be directed to that end...

> Train yourself, body and mind and soul, for her service...

> Work that she may prosper.

> Suffer that she may rejoice.”

President Kennedy does not stop with his fellow Americans.

From his head and heart goes forth an all-embracing call to mankind:

> “My fellow citizens of the world, ask not what America will do for you, but what together we can do for the freedom of man.”

Nature seems to have bestowed half of her material power on America and half on Russia.

How the leader of America can take the lead in bringing the world out of its Cold War orbit into a noble scheme of One World and One Law can be seen in the following almost prophetic utterance:

> “Today this country is ahead in the science and technology of space, while the Soviet Union is ahead in the capacity to lift large vehicles into orbit.

> Both nations would help themselves as well as other nations by removing these endeavours from the bitter and wasteful competition of Cold War.

> The United States would be willing to join with the Soviet Union and the scientists of all nations in a greater effort to make the fruits of this new knowledge available to all and, beyond that, in an effort to extend farm technology to hungry nations, to wipe out disease, to increase the exchange of scientists and their knowledge, and to make our own laboratories available to technicians of other lands who lack the facilities to pursue their own work.

> Where nature makes natural allies of us all, we can demonstrate that beneficial relations are possible even with those with whom we most deeply disagree, and this must someday be the basis of world peace and world law.”

Hope is strength.

Hope is progress.

When the sun of hope is eclipsed, the inevitable fear of bondage looms large.

Kennedy, with his breadth of outlook and depth of insight, can help immensely to restore this hope to man.

> “The hopes of all mankind rest upon us; not simply upon those of us in this chamber, but upon the peasant in Laos, the fisherman in Nigeria, the exile from Cuba, the spirit that moves every man and nation who shares our hopes for freedom and the future.”

If America wants to be friends with all the world, who can be her enemy?

Says her mouthpiece, President Kennedy:

> “We are not against any man, or any nation, or any system, except as it is hostile to freedom.”

It seems that in Kennedy's dictionary there are two complementary words which enrich and fulfil the sense of each other and constitute together the master formula of the language: freedom and peace.

> “We will make clear that America’s enduring concern is for both peace and freedom; that we are anxious to live in harmony with the Russian people; that we seek no conquests, no satellites, no riches; that we seek only the day when ‘nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.’”

We may well recollect the momentous words of one of his illustrious predecessors, the third President of the United States, Thomas Jefferson:

> “We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”

Neither are we to forget the immortal utterance of the sixteenth President, Abraham Lincoln:

> “Our reliance is in the love of liberty which God has planted in us.

> Our defence is in the spirit which prizes liberty as the heritage of all men, in all lands, everywhere.”

True, poverty and ignorance are man’s bitter foes.

But to replace poverty by affluence and ignorance by knowledge is not enough.

Material success is not all.

The quest of the spirit is of vital importance.

> “For the first time,” says Kennedy, “we have the capacity to strike off the remaining bonds of poverty and ignorance, to free our people for the spiritual and intellectual fulfilment which has always been the goal of our civilisation.”

President Kennedy is, as it were, the lineal descendant of the American nation’s traditional leadership.

As George Washington was the Father of the United States, as Abraham Lincoln was its Saviour, as Franklin D.

Roosevelt was the Voice of America, even so is John Kennedy the Noble Defender of World Freedom and World Peace.

“Defender of World Freedom and World Peace” is certainly a great and responsible role.

But is that enough for a man of Kennedy’s calibre?

In “the Hour of God” that has set in, there has appeared a man of high capacity and of unquestioned goodwill for all, a man of a sympathetic cast of mind, a man of faith and trust in God’s omnipotence, a man who has already caught an image of the One World to be.

Unmistakably he will prove a man of destiny and launch a world-scale offensive for the “Hour of God” upon his own country as well as upon the rest of the world; establish over this dark, miserable world a new world of peace and power, truth and knowledge, health and happiness, a world one with its Creator.

It is not suggested that Kennedy, the mere man, has that superhuman power.

The world must not forget that, despite the extremely poor resources at his disposal, Churchill successfully stemmed the Hitlerian tide upon England and became the instrument of a Higher Power, simply by his faith and determination.

Who knows but that, like Arjuna in the Battle of Kurukshetra, like Churchill in the Second World War, Kennedy will be an instrument of God’s conquest of His own world for Himself?

Not without reason, perhaps, has this young soul been called to the great Chair of the new world.

By sympathy and understanding he has won a high place in the heart of India.

Her outlook towards the material aspect of life has now conspired to bring him nearer to her soul.

The gulf between Matter and Spirit is going to close.

The two poles will meet.

Photograph

Sri Chinmoy is paying soulful homage to President Kennedy at the Kennedy Memorial in Washington, D.C., in January 1976.

Photo: Bhashwar Hart

From:Sri Chinmoy,John Kennedy: the world-treasure-home, Agni Press, 1999
Sourced from https://srichinmoylibrary.com/jkw