One does not expect a life that is immersed in the Divine to yield literary classics. That the one who envisions the Infinite should also undertake to impart his realisations to others would seem in itself to be an overwhelming task. And yet, in age after age, seers and mystics have created sublime works, capable of elevating aspiring souls and conveying a glimpse of the Beyond.

This selection of Sri Chinmoy’s poetry spans the years from his youth in India to his mature poems written in the West, and continues up until his passing in 2007. In all, the efflorescence of more than half a century is represented here.

Sri Chinmoy’s vast body of poetry is an endless contemplation of God and of man’s journey towards Him. In reading these pristine stanzas, we discover before us a map of the human soul— whence it has come and whither it is returning.

A hallmark of Sri Chinmoy’s poetry is its gracefulness and dignity. In his early poems, this was reflected in more traditional poetic forms. Over the years, he moved towards an increasingly aphoristic style, wherein the major theme of the poem was condensed into the compass of no more than one or two stanzas.

As part of this distillation of the English language, Sri Chinmoy spontaneously gathered key words together to form compound nouns. These innovative expressions not only provide the poems with a luminous core of meaning but also with a new language of the interior life.

Alongside his poems, we find Sri Chinmoy’s renderings into English of many of his Bengali songs. Even in translation, these lyrics would seem to have something of the pure, musical note still clinging to them. We feel the immediacy of the speaker’s emotions as he responds with pain to God’s absence or is filled with the joy of God’s presence. In their delicate and subtle emotional shadings, these lyrics reveal a rare, personal aspect of the poet.

Finally, this selection includes various other literary forms, such as prayers, conversations and aphorisms. All Sri Chinmoy’s writings are intrinsically poetic. It was, quite simply, the way he envisioned the world.