7401. If I Deepen My Faith

My Lord,
What will happen
If I deepen my faith
In You?

“My son,
My rich Heart
Will grow richer and richest
In you.”

7402. Mine Is The Mind

Mine is the mind
That longs for
A simplicity-smile.

Mine is the heart
That longs for
A sincerity-cry.

Mine is the life
That longs for
A perfection-run.

Mine is the God
That cares for
My transcendence-flight.

7403. My Life's Journey

I concentrate
For success in my life’s journey.

I meditate
For progress in my life’s journey.

I contemplate
For God-process in my life’s journey.

7404. Ability and Necessity

What is success?
My expansion-ability.
What is progress?
My perfection-necessity.

7405. I Have Scheduled My Time

I have scheduled my time
Carefully and perfectly.
Nothing can dare to interfere
With my appointment
With my Eternity’s Beloved Supreme.

7406. The Time Of Rejoicing

Now is the time of rejoicing!
My inner world tells me
That my Lord is all Compassion.
My outer world tells me
That I am all aspiration.

7407. A Very Close Connection

If you want to maintain
A very close connection with your Master,
Here on earth and there in Heaven,
Your meditation will always be
Your direct line to him.

7408. Your Inner Reserves Are Unlimited

Because you have a purity-mind
And a sacrifice-heart,
Your inner reserves are unlimited.

7409. What Your Mind Has

What your mind has
Is inexplicable inspiration.
What your heart has
Is unfathomable aspiration.
What God is going to give you
Is insurmountable realisation.

7410. A New Gospel

Do you see something
Deep inside yourself?
It is the epitome of a new gospel:
Your heart’s selfless love.

7411. At The God-Appointed Hour

At the God-appointed Hour
His earthly sorrows appeared
One final time,
Only to disappear forever.

7412. Each Incident In Life

Each incident in life
Must not be orchestrated
But liberated
From life’s ignorance-dream.

7413. To Weather The Crisis

To weather the crisis
Of self-indulgence,
I shall not hide
But openly lead a life
Of loving sacrifice-light.

7414. Success

Success has made his outer life
Completely godless
And his inner life
Unthinkably useless.

7415. To Become Generous

To become generous
Is not a difficult task.
To begin with,
Be more generous
With your own self-appreciation-smile.

7416. Inner Eagerness

If you want to make progress,
You need only one thing:
Inner eagerness.
Real inner eagerness
Comes only from the heart.
This eagerness the heart receives
From the soul
And the soul receives
Directly from God.

7417. Give Your Heart A Chance

Your own heart
Can be absolutely perfect.
Just give it a chance,
A mere chance,
If possible, unconditionally.

7418. A True Truth-Seeker

If you are a true truth-seeker,
How can you forget
Early in the morning
To invite God, your Friend,
Your real Friend, your only Friend,
To walk along with you
During the entire day?

7419. I Have Blindfolded Myself

I have blindfolded myself
By allowing my success
To remain totally ignorant
Of the purity and divinity of progress.

7420. Outer Authority

What you have
Is outer authority.
But this outer authority
Can never overrule
The oneness-purity
Of the constant God-lover in me.

7421. You Want To Measure God

You want to measure God
By your own discouraging
And disheartening standard.
How, then, can you ever hope
To see the Face of God
In this entire life?

7422. The Salvation-Boat

You have missed the salvation-boat.
How, then, can you expect
To reach the Golden Shore?

7423. The Very Nature Of Purity

The very nature of purity
Is to give the mind
A new vision-eye
And
A new manifestation-arm.

7424. Your Heart Excuses

Your heart excuses
The weaknesses of your entire life.
Your mind excuses
Only its own weaknesses.
It cannot and does not want to excuse
Anything or anybody else on earth.

7425. Already Granted

If you sincerely want God
To give you the capacity
To pray and meditate
And to become good and divine,
Then rest assured,
The capacity has already been granted.

7426. Truth Misused

Truth misused, misplaced
And misdirected
Always causes severe pain
In the Heart of God
And in the mind of man.

7427. My Pride-Ocean

Yesterday I saw the depth
Of my pride-ocean.
Today I am seeing the length and breadth
Of my pride-ocean.
But now what my Lord is telling me
Is simply unbelievable:
Tomorrow I shall see the depth,
Length and breadth
Of my oneness-compassion-ocean
All at once!

7428. My Earthly Knowledge-Pride

Out of His infinite Bounty
God has given me many good qualities
Which I am trying to preserve and expand.
Alas, I have given myself one quality
Which I have been trying for so long
To get rid of,
And that quality is
My excess of earthly knowledge-pride.

7429. The Life Of Living Death

My desire-life is not ending.
My aspiration-life is not beginning.
Still I am living the life
Of living death.

7430. You Can Possess Peace-Light

You can possess peace-light
Only after you have planted
The faith-plant
Carefully and devotedly.

7431. When Your Belief Is Strong

God will be ready to convince you
Only when your own belief in Him
Is strong
And not when you are plying
Your life-boat
Between trust and mistrust.

7432. The Gates Of Self-Destruction

Do you know how to praise yourself?
That means you know
How to abruptly open
At your sweet will
The gates of self-destruction.

7433. Not Ready To Love

You are always ready to love others,
But you are not ready to love
The Divine and Real in yourself.
Therefore, how do you expect
To tear yourself away
From ignorance-night?

7434. Everybody Laughs At Him

Everybody laughed at him
When he was on earth
Because he knew nothing about Heaven.

Everybody laughs at him
Now that he is in Heaven
Because he is totally ignorant of earth.

7435. What Pains My Heart Most

I know that I am imperfect,
And my imperfections disturb me
More than they disturb others.
But what pains my divine heart most
Is my conscious and clever unwillingness
To accept my Lord’s Will
As my very own.

7436. Countless New Friends

I am such a fool!
Every day I am dying
To have a new friend.
Yet easily I can have not one
But countless friends
Just by welcoming divine, inspiring
And illumining thoughts.

7437. Each Thought Embodies

Each thought embodies
Either the destruction-frown
Of darkest night
Or the Treasure-Smile
Of my Lord Supreme.

7438. Hope Is My Precious Treasure

Hope is my precious treasure
That I keep inside the heart-safe
Of my God-dreaming life
And God-distributing soul.

7439. Each Golden Opportunity

Mere acceptance of the spiritual life
Is not enough.
You must avail yourself
Of each golden opportunity,
And throw your heart and soul
Into your progress-life.

7440. Two Things Could Not Wait

Two things could not wait:
God’s Justice-Light could not wait
For my ignorance-night,
And my hope-flames could not wait
For God’s choice Hour.

7441. Two Most Important Secrets

My aspiration-heart is bursting
With two most important secrets:
At long last I am able to love God
And God alone;
God is pleased with me
Far beyond my imagination’s flight.

7442. Two Strange Misconceptions

Two strange misconceptions
Are torturing my mind:
My mind does not believe
That it can offer its very existence
To my heart,
And my mind does not believe
That God sleeplessly cares for it.

7443. My Life Is Truly Valuable

If I feel the Presence
Of my Beloved Supreme
Inside my crying heart,
Then my life is truly valuable.
If not,
It is as useless and insignificant
As a tiny ant.

7444. The Wrestler Of Wrestlers

Do not wrestle
With uncomely and undivine thoughts.
You are bound to lose.
Just invoke the Wrestler of wrestlers —
Your heart’s Inner Pilot —
To fight the battle for you.
Lo and behold,
Your victory is already won.

7445. Inner Encouragement

When a seeker of the highest Truth
Is blessed with inner encouragement
From his Inner Pilot,
He can summon all his giant strength
To establish the supreme Victory
Of his Lord Supreme
Here on earth.

7446. The Pressure Of Dragon-Time

Unless your life becomes
A life of surrender,
Unless your heart becomes
A heart of gratitude,
You will be doomed to live
Under the ruthless pressure of dragon-time,
And your mind will be filled constantly
With deathless apprehension.

7447. Curious About Only Two Things

Since you always enjoy curiosity,
Try to be curious
About only two things:
When you will be able to see
The Face of God
For the first time,
And how you will become
Absolutely the choicest instrument
Of your Beloved Supreme.

7448. Challenge Ignorance

Challenge the pride
Of ignorance-power
Since you soulfully and sleeplessly love
God and His God-Hour.

7449. He Listens To Two Voices

He listens to two voices:
The voice that inspires his heart
And the voice that feeds
And satisfies his mind.

7450. Ascent Is Aspiring

Ascent is aspiring.
Descent is strangling.
Surrender is at once
Perfect and illumining.

7451. You Feel You Have Nothingness

You feel you have nothingness
In the depths of your heart,
But that is a misconception.
What you have is the beginning
Of an illumining newness
And a satisfying God-fulness.

7452. If I Fail

If I fail in my spiritual life,
That does not mean
I shall stop praying and meditating.

If I succeed in my spiritual life,
That does not mean
I do not need a deeper hunger
And a more abiding love
For my Lord Supreme.

7453. By Legitimate Means

Not by hook or by crook,
But by legitimate means,
God wants us to transcend ourselves.

7454. Integrally Perfect

Yesterday
I desired to become a great man.
My Lord said,
“That is not enough.”

Today
I desire to become a good man.
My Lord says,
“That is not enough.”

I ask my Lord,
“Is there anything
Beyond greatness and goodness?”

My Lord says,
“Yes, I want you to be
Integrally perfect.”

7455. My Lord Does Not Give Up

God has been waiting and waiting
To give me His Nectar-Delight.
It is I who am delaying and delaying.
Yet my Lord does not give up hope.
My Lord does not give up
His Promise to my soul.

7456. God-Oneness-Satisfaction

I see what I have.
God sees what I am.
What I have
Is an endless sigh.
What I am, according to God,
Is a birthless and deathless
God-Oneness-Satisfaction.

7457. God's Satisfaction-Delight

This world does not believe
In perfection.
It thinks perfection
Will always remain a far cry.
Such being the case,
God’s Satisfaction-Delight
Does not want to arrive here.

7458. I Want To Be Alone

Indeed, there is nothing wrong with me.
I just do not want to mix too much
With the misunderstanding
And misunderstood world.
I want to be alone
So that my inspiration-bird
And aspiration-flames
Can claim me as their own,
And my confidence-tree can grow
In silence-light and surrender-delight.

7459. Not In It

Although he prays regularly,
His searching mind is not in it.
Although he meditates regularly,
His aspiring heart is not in it.
Although he serves regularly,
His sacrificing life is not in it.

7460. A Deluge Of Doubts

You want to know
Why everything goes wrong for you.
Everything goes wrong because
Your mind consciously treasures
A deluge of doubts.

7461. A New Life

God killed him
With His Indifference-Eye.
Now God is giving him a new life
With His Compassion-Heart.

7462. A Selfless Lover

A selfless lover is he
Who has learnt to wait
For his perfection-tower to be blessed
By God’s Satisfaction-Hour.

7463. An Incurable Failure

Your life has become
An incurable failure
Precisely because you have allowed
False freedom to govern your mind.

7464. The Hyphen

Your life is the hyphen
Between a gratitude-cry
And a surrender-smile.

7465. A Heart Treasured By God

Your beauty’s soulfulness
And your purity’s sweetness
Have granted you a heart
That is proudly treasured
By God Himself.

7466. Each Time You Delay

Each time you delay
In praying and meditating,
You go further down the road
That will cleverly and swiftly lead you
Back to your original start:
Desire-market.

7467. A Sincere Seeker

A sincere seeker
Will take every opportunity
To meditate and serve.
An insincere seeker
Will find every possible excuse
To stay at home and sleep.

7468. Joy Can Never Rule

Joy can never rule the day
Of the human being
Who plays with doubt
And dances with suspicion.

7469. A Daily Feast

Because of his immense faith
In his higher self,
He enjoys a daily feast
In the inner world.

7470. Do Not Try To Climb Too Quickly

Do not try to climb too quickly.
If you do, there is every possibility
That you will fall on your way,
Although only temporarily.

7471. True Friends

On earth you can have true friends
Only if you continuously bury
Their stark faults.

7472. Obedience-Life Has No Parallel

There are many things
That can make your human heart happy,
But to make your divine heart happy,
Obedience-life has no parallel.

7473. A Stranger To The Higher Worlds

He thinks that humility
Is a strange thing.
He feels that divinity
Is a strange thing.
Such being the case,
He will remain a stranger
To the higher worlds.

7474. Dynamism Begins With Discipline

Dynamism begins with discipline.
If you are regular and devoted
In your meditation,
Your dynamism will, without fail,
Come to the fore.

7475. A Singing Heart

A singing heart
Is an immediate openness
To God’s Oneness.

7476. Two Lords

God is thinking of you
At this very moment,
But you are not thinking of Him.
Therefore, ignorance is your lord
And Compassion is God’s Lord.

7477. Praising God In Secret

Praising God in secret
Is loving God
In perfect perfection.

7478. Keep Your Eyes Wide Open

Keep your eyes wide open.
You are bound to see
God the divine Dispenser.

Keep your heart wide open.
You are bound to see
God the supreme Lover.

7479. Do What Your Inner Pilot Asks

Do what your Inner Pilot asks,
For He wants you to be
Cheerfully and unmistakably
His outer Voice.

7480. Good-Bye To Fear

His heart has already said
Good-bye to fear.
Now his mind is saying
Good-bye to doubt.

7481. Make It Famous

If you have an aspiring heart,
Then make it famous
By inundating it with faith.

If you have a dynamic vital,
Then make it famous
By inundating it with courage.

7482. A Man Of Sorrow

You are now a man of sorrow.
If you want to be a man of joy,
Then surrender your sorrow
To the God who loves your heart
And to the Lord who needs your life.

7483. God Will Not Overload You

God will not overload you.
He is your heart’s Eternity’s
Father Supreme.
He is your soul’s Immortality’s
Friend Supreme.

7484. God Is Not Confused

God is not confused when I tell Him
That my mind does not want Him
But needs Him.

God is not confused when I tell Him
That my heart loves Him
But does not treasure Him.

7485. Practise Loving The World

Practise loving the world
Before you ever dare to knock
At God’s Heart-Door.

7486. In The Morning He Says Hello

In the morning he says hello
To his heart’s ceaseless cries.
In the evening he says good-bye
To the world that loves him
But does not need him.

7487. The Wisdom-Department

In the wisdom-department
No clever man,
No proud man,
No ungrateful man
Will ever be allowed to work.

7488. The Happy Man

Who is the happy man?
Certainly not the one
Who is afraid of fear
But the one who is always
A friend of faith.

7489. My God-Oneness-Documents

God’s Compassion-Eye
Tells me to relax.
God’s Forgiveness-Heart
Allows me to renew
My God-oneness-documents.

7490. Can, Must And Will

We can, we must and we will
Bring down God the Supreme Sovereign.
We can, we must and we will
Lift up man the lost soul.

7491. A Member Of God's Family

If you have faith,
Then you are already a real member
Of God’s Perfection-Satisfaction-Family.

7492. Jealousy Will Devour Your Life

Jealousy will devour your life
Because you do not believe
In your universal oneness-freedom-life.

7493. A Happy Listener

A happy listener to the inner voice
Is another name
For a God-Satisfaction-lover
In this confusing and confused world.

7494. He Who Cheerfully Studies

Who is first in my life?
Not he who rules,
Not he who overrules,
But he who always cheerfully studies
In God’s School.

7495. Because He Loves God Sleeplessly

Because he loves God sleeplessly,
God cheerfully agrees to own
His life’s teeming mistakes.

7496. God Is Eagerly Looking Forward

During his marathon talk with God,
One special thing he learnt:
God is eagerly looking forward
To seeing teeming Gods like Himself.

7497. Please Only God

If it is God’s Will,
You can try to please others
Instead of yourself.
But when it is your time to pray and meditate,
You should try to please only one Person —
God.

7498. On The Same Aspiration-Team

Seekers of the same calibre
Should always play together
On the same aspiration-team.
Otherwise, the good seeker-players will feel
That they are wasting their precious time,
While the bad seeker-players will feel
That they can never reach
The necessary standard,
And they will give up the game altogether.

7499. Together You Are Succeeding

If you want inspiration and encouragement,
Remain with seekers of your own standard.
Even if you make mistakes,
You will know that others also
Are making similar mistakes,
Or are learning from your mistakes.
Together you are succeeding,
Together you are proceeding
Towards your destined goal.

7500. The Peace That Creates Hunger

My Lord, I do not want the peace
That tells me I need nothing more.
No, I want the peace that creates in me
Constant hunger to receive You
In every way
And distribute You
In every widening heart.

Editor's introduction to the first edition

This is the seventy-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

Sri Chinmoy and Ravi Shankar discuss music in their native Bengali during the musician’s visit to Jamaica, New York, on 20 September 1973.

Editor's note

Some poems in this first edition were later selected by the author for a special collection of 207 Flower-Flames (FFP). The author also chose to revise some of his original poems for this anthology:

FF-7404: FFP 172 (revised version).