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The view I have been developing in my discussion to this point is that Sri Chinmoy's chastened language and astringency of form are born of a deep, underlying faith in the integrity and sanctity of the single word. In the poem "Your Heart," for example, the poets use of the colour profiles "spotless white," "limitless blue" and "deathless red" to capture the essence of each phase of heart illustrates how the very plainness of the poet's terms elucidates subtle nuances of meaning. The words, on one level, establish the separate presences of morning, afternoon and evening with a brilliant brush stroke. As our visual focus is drawn to the colour, however, we come to realise it as a complexion both of the time of day and of the heart. This movement of the imagination is made possible by the ambiguity of the three qualifying adjectives: spotless, limitless, deathless. These are adjectives which imply, by negation, the absolute qualities of Infinity, Eternity and Immortality. To the extent that man can claim such qualities, the poet seems to say, he approaches the Divine. God then "embraces" him in perfect union. The superficial simplicity of the diction in these two poems does not signify a strictly encoded meaning but is rather a sign of the poet's urge to make universally intelligible the subtle complexities of spiritual experience.

If the decline of rhetoric may be attributed to a growing belief in the private, confessional character of poetry, then perhaps the dominant presence of rhetoric in the work of Sri Chinmoy may likewise be seen as an index of the re-emergence of poetry in its public role. The orator of classical times combined the offices of philosopher, statesman and poet. That strain survives in the work of Sri Chinmoy who is at once seer and poet, a point I shall develop further in chapter three.