Sri Chinmoy Poetry Festival
in a garden-like meditative settingThe Sri Chinmoy Poetry Festival, founded in 2009, is an annual event occurring every August in New York City and in additional venues throughout the year. Its focus is the poetry of Sri Chinmoy and the genre of poetry, which he loved so well. The Festival’s focus is the spiritual poetry of the great “student of peace”, Sri Chinmoy. It encompasses a broad exploration of life through the arts, with music and art filling the air.
Praise for Sri Chinmoy’s Poetry
Treasured Poems by Sri Chinmoy
Favorites Selected by His Students from Across the Globe
Material things age and ache.
Spiritual things grow and glow.
And my God-hunger
Is a birthless and deathless thing.
Sri Chinmoy, Ten Thousand Flower-Flames, Part 1
Chosen by Nayana (New York, USA)
***
Peace, I feel, peace I give, bliss I become.
God has made my life-breath His Victory-Drum.
I sing and sail, I sail and sing.
God’s Tears of Joy and Pride I bring.
Sri Chinmoy, A Heart of Peace
Chosen by Ashok (Goa, India)
***
I fly on the wings of morning
To see in Heaven God’s Beauty.
I fly on the wings of noon
To see on earth God’s Power.
I fly on the wings of evening
To feel in my heart God’s Silence.
I fly on the wings of evening
To feel in my heart God’s Silence.
I fly on the wings of night
To feel in my soul God’s Bliss.
Sri Chinmoy, The Dance of Life, Part 3
Chosen by Karpani (Moscow, Russia)
***
Beyond speech and mind,
Into the river of ever-effulgent Light
My heart dives.
Today thousands of doors, closed for millennia,
Are opened wide.
Sri Chinmoy, Supreme, Teach Me How to Surrender
Chosen by Abhijatri, (Johannesburg, South Africa)
***
God will do it
Try your best;
Do your best.
Leave the rest
At God’s Compassion-Feet.
Devotedly
He will, without fail,
Do and fulfil
What is left undone,
Unconditionally.
Do you know
Who God is?
He is your desire’s Lord
And
Your aspiration’s Slave.
Sri Chinmoy, The Golden Boat, part 16 Chosen by Brian (Seattle, Washington)
More Treasured Poems
In fire and water,
In dust and atoms,
Seeing You, Your Meditation-Trance,
Many poets have depicted
Your immortal Beauty.
They are my pioneers.
This morning I am weaving the garland
Of soulful words:
Victory, victory, victory
To the Guru Supreme of the Universe.
Repeating this incantation
We shall conquer the world-soul.
Sri Chinmoy, Supreme, Teach Me How to Cry
Chosen by Suchana (Buenos Aires, Argentina)
***
We are the Pilgrims of the Lord Supreme
On the Path of Infinity.
At this time we have broken asunder
Obstruction’s door.
We have broken asunder the night
Of tenebrous darkness, inconscience
And the eternal, indomitable fear of death.
The Boat of the supernal Light’s Dawn
Is beckoning us,
And the World-Pilot
Of the hallowed bond of Love Divine
Is beckoning us.
The Liberator’s Hands are drawing us
To the Ocean of the great Unknown.
Having conquered the life-breath
Of the Land of Immortality,
And carrying aloft the Banner
Of the Lord Supreme,
We shall return:
We, the drops and flames
Of Transformation-Light.
Sri Chinmoy, My Flute
Chosen by Ashcharjya (Paris, France)
***
How will you know
If you are divine?
You will know
If you are divine
When you discover
That without your body’s Himalayan achievements
The world can exist –
But not without your soul’s
One little smile.
Sri Chinmoy, I Need Only God
Chosen by Pradipana (Frankfurt, Germany)
***
A soulful heart
Has discovered a supreme truth:
To meditate on God
Is a privilege
And not a duty.
Sri Chinmoy, Ten Thousand Flower-Flames, Part 9
Chosen by Dule, (Zlin, Czech Republic)
More Treasured Poems
By whose touch the lily smiles
And opens its beauty-bud?
Whose beauty’s moonlight
Do I see in the lily?
Who is the Eye of my eye?
Who is the Heart of my heart?
Alas, why do I not see Him,
His Face of transcendental Beauty,
Even in my dreams?
Sri Chinmoy, Supreme, Teach Me How to Cry
Chosen by Kamaneeya (Novi Sad, Serbia)
***
Hope
Thou art my Lord, my golden dream,
Thou art my life in death.
O bless me with Thy Hope Supreme,
Lord of the Eternal Breath!
Agelong the vision of Thy Sun
For darkness have I sought.
I know the evils I should shun
And quickly bring to nought.
The earth is deaf and blind, my Lord;
Its true goal it denies.
It hears no voice, no heavenly word
From those who seek the skies.
O yet I feel Thy kingly Grace
With my feeble mortality.
I shall win at last the Noonward Race,
Plunge in the Nectar-Sea.
Sri Chinmoy, My Flute
Chosen by Sevananda (San Juan, Puerto Rico and New York, USA)
****
An iota of gratitude
The seeker’s offering
Of an iota of gratitude to God
Is as beautiful as a rose
Held by God in His own Hand.
Sri Chinmoy, The Caged Bird and the Uncaged Bird
Chosen by Devaki (Montreal, Canada)
***
Some of these poems were translated by Sri Chinmoy from his Bengali original. He also set some of these to music, as he did to many of his Bengali and English poems.