1¹

My Lord’s Correction-Hand
Is upon my life.
I must never
Draw back.

2

My Lord asks me
To give equal value
To His Compassion-Eye
And His Correction-Rod
For my ultimate good.

3

My Lord cradles my heart
Between the newness of the morning
And the stillness of dew.

4

My Lord,
Out of Your infinite Compassion,
You are paving the way for me
To arrive at the highest destination.
Alas,
Why am I drawing back
In self-doubt?
Why?

5

God can do things
Infinitely more for us
If we can feel
That He is astonishingly nearer to us
Than we think.

6

When I hunger
For God’s Love,
His Concern-Heart
Comes first.
His Compassion-Eye
Follows.

7

Right from this very moment,
No anxiety will be able to find
A nesting place
Inside my thoughts.

8

If I do not love sleeplessly
My Lord Beloved Supreme
Out of the fulness of my heart,
Then I shall fail,
I shall definitely fail.

9

Every day I must make
My morning meditation
Rich, very rich,
By obeying the Voice within.

10

God tells me,
“My child,
I am eager to make you
An exact prototype of Myself.
Are you ready?”
My Lord,
I am ready.
I am at Your express Command.

11²

My Lord,
I am seriously angry with You.
I do not need Your Power.
“What else, My child?”
I do not need Your Love.
“What else, My child?”
I do not need Your Compassion.

“What else, My child?”
I do not need Your Attention.
“What else, My child?”
My Lord,
Truth to tell,
I do not need anything from You.

“My child,
Is your exceptionally powerful sermon over?” Yes, my Lord.
“My child,
My pithy Sermon begins.
Just because you do not need anything
From Me,
That does not mean
That I am not entitled
To have anything from you.

In no way you can prevent Me
From desiring things from you.
I need your affection.
I need your sweetness.
I need your fondness.”
My Lord,
As I do not need anything from You,
Even so, You have to be fully prepared
To live
All by Yourself.

“My child,
You are My Eternity’s Heart.
You are My Immortality’s Breath.
You want to play the role
Of your volcano-anger.
I want to play the role
Of My Forgiveness-Fountain.”

12

“My child,
Why are you so ungrateful?
Can you not see
That I have put My Arm around you?
Can you not see
That with My Vision-Eye-Wings
I am sheltering you?

Can you not see and feel
That you are the sole object
Of My very, very special Concern?
My Concern for you
Shall remain forever unparalleled.

My child,
If you continue to displease Me,
Then I shall compel you
To take human incarnations
Countless times.
Needless to say,
This will be My last resort.”

13

My Lord,
I am now so miserable.
I really do not know
What to say and what to do.
“My child,
Keep your confidence in Me.
You will never be disappointed.

Your life-boat shall ply
Between the success-shore
And the progress-shore.
I shall garland you
With My
Immortality’s Transcendental Pride.”

14

Solitude
Prepares me
Multitude
To feed.

15

My philosophy
And God’s Philosophy
Are totally different.
God loves me.
Therefore He needs me.
I need God.
Therefore I love Him.

16

In the spiritual life,
The inner awakening
Safeguards again and again
Our outer life.

17

The human in me
Prays for God’s Love.
The divine in me
Prays for God’s Victory.

18³

My Lord,
Please do not allow my desire-life
To draw me away from You
And scorch me
In the wildfire of the world.

19

I must be the absolute master
Of my mind.
I must mould it and shape it
The way my Inner Pilot commands me.

20

God asks me only
To keep my mind pure.
He will gladly
Do the rest.

21

By this time I must realise
That my own desire-life
Is the only culprit.
I must not blame anybody else
For my sufferings.

22

The river of time is flowing on.
It does not wait for anyone.
Swimming, we must cross the river.
Singing and dancing,
We must spend all the time
At the Destination.

23

When attachment disappears,
Detachment brings God to us
Immediately.

24

My Lord, my Lord!
Do save me
From the snares of self-interest.
Self-interest has caught me taut
In its grip.

25

Living for the mind
Is the spiritual death.
Living for the heart
Is the spiritual life.
Living for the soul
Is the spiritual Immortality.
Living for God
Is becoming a God-representative
Here on earth.

26

By saying that the world
Is a bad place,
We are not making the world good.
To make the world good,
We must become good first.
How to become good?
Only by loving God the man
And serving man the God.

27

To please God
In His own Way,
I must become a giant personality
In spirituality.
I must become unique
In God-achievements
And a real asset to humanity.

28⁴

The seeker’s inner peace
Is the strongest power
In his outer life.

29

The supreme victory is certain
Only when God’s Eye
Touches our hearts.
What is the supreme victory?
God-realisation for God’s Sake.

30

An obedience-mind
Receives
God’s proudest Smile.

31

A disobedience-mind
Is a seeker’s greatest failure
In his spiritual life.

32

When I pray,
The sound-life of the day
Joins me proudly.

33

When I meditate,
The silence-heart of the night
Joins me self-givingly.

34

God’s Sadness is measureless
When He sees
My world-aloofness-mind.

35

God sees inside my sweetness-heart
The blooms and the blossoms
Of His own countless divine Qualities.

36

The unaspiring life lives
In the thickening clouds
Of the mind.

37

The aspiring life lives
In the brightening sun
Of the heart.

38⁵

My happiness
Does not start
Until God’s Compassion-Eye
Arrives.

39

My Lord is always
An eager Listener.
Can I not be the same,
At least once in a while?

40

My Lord has His own
Daily challenges:
My mind-illumination
And my life-transformation.

41

At last,
After a very long time,
Today my sincere need of God
Has come back.

42

During the day
I see my Lord Supreme
In the waves of my heart-sea.
At night
I see my Lord Supreme
In the silence of my soul-sky.

43

God Himself
Finds the right path
For my crying and weeping heart.

44

My heart and I are determined
To spend Eternity
With my Lord’s Compassion-flooded Eye.

45

God’s Forgiveness-Heart
Is never
Pressed for time.

46

My mind,
Just for this very moment
Please try to please only God.

47

Sooner or later,
My heart shall hear
God’s Whispers.
Sooner or later,
My mind shall hear
God’s Commands.

48

My Lord loves
To wait and hope.
From now on
I shall do the same.

49

My Lord wants me to show Him
Only what He wants to see:
My ignorance-pleasure-life.

50

We can serve and worship God
At any time we want to,
But during the day
Is the best time to serve God
And during the night
Is the best time to worship God.

51

Perfection and satisfaction
Shall dawn
Only after we have known God
In all His Aspects.

52

Alas,
We are all satisfaction-seekers
And not aspiration-lovers.

53

If I see myself
The way my Lord sees me,
Then I am on the verge of
God-realisation.
If I see myself
The way others see me,
Then my God-realisation
Shall forever remain
A far cry.

54⁶

Every day
The mind delivers
Destructive blows.
Every day
The heart delivers
God’s express Messages.

55

My prayer-life
Loves to live
On bended knees.

56

My body loves to walk
Towards the goal.
My vital loves to march
Towards the goal.
My mind loves to jog
Towards the goal.
My heart loves to sprint
Towards the goal.
My soul loves to fly
Towards the goal.

My Lord tells me
That I do not have to walk,
I do not have to march,
I do not have to jog,
I do not have to sprint
And I do not have to fly
Towards the goal.
The goal will come to me
If I can become
A sea of silence-peace.

57

A perfection-life
Is very slow in blossoming,
But it does blossom
Eventually.

58

Every morning
My Lord teaches me
How to breathe in
His Oneness-Fulness-Breath.

59

I am heartsick
And homesick
For my Lord’s
Compassion-flooded Eye.

60

Every morning
God wants me to garland Him
With my devotion-heart-roses.

61⁷

Slowly the body dies.
Quickly the soul flies.
Self-givingly the Lord feeds
Earth’s sighs and Heaven’s promises.

62

The power of silence
Has enriched my life
Far beyond the flights
Of my imagination.

63

Sleeplessly and breathlessly
God wants my God-devotion-flame
Burning.

64

God tells me
That I must bring with me
My loving words and my smiling heart
When I come to visit Him.

65

Alas,
Why do I get frightened
When my soul wants me to have
A guided tour of Heaven?

66

God most proudly treasures
The devotion-fragrance
Of my aspiration-heart.

67

The less possession
My life has,
The more aspiration
My heart offers to God.

68

God is always eager
To lead us,
But will we ever be ready
To follow Him?

69

O my mind,
For such a long time
I have been with you.
Can you not now allow me
To be alone?

70

God’s every Visit
My every breath
Treasures.

71⁸

What each human being has
In common with God:
Tears and smiles.

72

Alas,
By constantly listening
To my desiring and doubting mind,
I have now become
My own unfortunate victim.

73

To please our Lord Supreme,
Equality is not enough.
We needs must have oneness.

74

God’s Compassion-Smiles
And my gratitude-tears
Are successful in merging.

75

The things that God touches
Every day in my life:
My sincerity-heart
And my simplicity-life.

76

I speak to my shrine:
Where is our Lord Supreme?
My shrine speaks to me:
“Our Lord Supreme
Is right here with me.
But where are you,
And where is your heart?
What are you both doing?”

77

The mind loves
To be the expectation.
The mind loves
To be the exception.

78

The heart loves
To be the aspiration.
The heart loves
To be the perfection.

79

If we look at life
From the divine angle,
We see God blooming
Here, there and allwhere.

80

May I help You, my Lord?
“Correction, My child.”
Yes, my Lord.
May I serve You, my Lord?
“Correction, My child.”
Yes, my Lord.

May You be my All, my Lord?
“Correction, My child.”
Yes, my Lord.
My Lord, You are my All.
“Correction, my child.”
Yes, my Lord.
My Lord, I am Your doll.

81

The less I have
In my mind-jungle,
The more I am
In my heart-garden.

82

I have learned
Something absolutely new today.
God has given my mind
An ultimatum:
The mind has to choose
Either God or ignorance.

83

Start is here,
Where my heart cries.
Finish is there,
Where my Lord smiles.

84

The doubting mind
Deserves life-imprisonment.
The aspiring heart
Needs heart-enlightenment.

85

My heart is in between
My life’s sorrows
And
My soul’s consolations.

86

When we do not aspire,
Life remains an imperfect bloom.
When we aspire,
Life becomes the perfection-blossom.

Editor's note

Sri Chinmoy offered these prayers during his visit to Hawaii, Cambodia, Viet Nam and Malaysia from November 2001 to February 2002.