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One of the most powerful ways in which Sri Chinmoy creates this taste is by multiplying the examples of particular points of view and expressions. He has created not works but "worlds" of poetry, painting, music and the like, and his opus as a whole has assumed tremendous proportions. The reader cannot help but be attracted by the effulgence of Sri Chinmoy's spiritual personality. In a letter addressed to the poet, composer Leonard Bernstein wrote:
It is my pleasure and honour to write you these words of admiration for your astonishing achievements.
You are a miraculous model of the abundance in the creative life that we lesser mortals seek, and I can only hope that I can some day meet you and perhaps participate in that cosmic fountain of stillness and profound energy which you inhabit .[37]
Similarly, the poet Archibald MacLeish, writing to an acquaintance, enthused about Sri Chinmoy's painting:
... I share your admiration and wonder-admiration for the flood of painting suddenly produced in so short a time-wonder that he could endure so great a gift.[38]
These two letters were written in 1977. The previous year had been a year of music for Sri Chinmoy. In addition to giving countless concerts, where he performed on flute, violin, cello, esraj and other instruments, he composed many songs in Bengali and provided English translations. In their transparency and delicacy, these lyrics seem to partake of the softness of their Bengali counterparts. Even in translation, they would seem to have something of the pure musical note still clinging to them and this gives renewed meaningfulness to their diction, style and length. For the most part, these lyrics portray transient moods: undefined yearnings, a tenderness that is at once loving and plaintive, a sense of pain or a rush of joy The tone of these lyrics is frequently ambiguous, shading from one emotion into another almost imperceptibly In the following typical song, for example, the speaker appears helplessly caught amidst life's opposing forces but in the poem's final line he resolves this conflict and is infused with the hope of eventual blossoming:
