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THE MESSAGE OF SURRENDER

Today You have given me The message of surrender.
I have offered to You
My very flower-heart.
In the dark night with tears,
In the unknown prison-cell of illusion,
In the house of the finite,
No longer shall I abide.
I know You are mine.
I have known this, Mother,
0 Queen of the Eternal.[ 41]

 
It is obvious that Sri Chinmoy is not striving for any unusual effect in such a poem. Indeed, it closely parallels his usage of Father and King and the quiet sincerity of his tone, which does not run to excess or ornamentation, augments the effectiveness of the symbolism. That the Mother form of God may be initially unfamiliar to many Western readers need not hinder an appreciation of this approach and of its many enchanting elements. Poems which dwell on God in a feminine form, as Mother or Queen, figure particularly in Sri Chinmoy's songs from the Bengali. In translation, we can see the poet striving to catch the native accent of his devotion in the less pliant forms of the English language. The results are frequently poems of rare tenderness and delicacy:

MOTHER, IF I LOSE TO YOU

Mother, if I lose to You,
That is my only Victory
Whatever I have given into Your Hands
Is my only savings.
To me the rest is of no value,
A mere waste,
And it only tortures me and
Stands as a burden on my way
I cannot put it to use.
When I lose to You,
After I have achieved
My full realisation,
I know my greatest reward I shall receive.[42]