Aum Publications

For many of us, the inspiration to write poetry visits us without advance notice, stays but fleetingly, and then departs. However, on a summers day in New York in 1983, spiritual teacher Sri Chinmoy had a different experience. The inspiration came to him to write 27,000 short poems. He had no idea how many years this epic project would take, or even if it was humanly possible. But he rode the crest of this wave of inspiration and poems started flowing forth poems about the inner life, about meditation, about the struggles of the mind and the small victories of the heart. There were poems that encompassed the sweep of centuries, while others celebrated the simple beauty of sunrise and sunset. In many ways, the poet became a divine cartographer, mapping the vast inner realms of the soul. The years passed by and still the poems streamed from his pen. Finally, in 1998, almost 15 years later, he celebrated the end of his epic journey.