Page 217
What far-flung vision impelled Sri Chinmoy to select the number ten thousand
as his goal? In what sense would they be "flaming flower-poems"? Into what
vast pattern would they arrange themselves? These are the questions to which
I shall address myself in the following pages. If my conclusions seem tentative,
or if, given the hindsight of time, they seem to neglect certain areas and
favour others, it may be that any commentary upon a work in progress, such
as this, is necessarily an imperfect understanding of the whole. My study
of Ten Thousand Flower-Flames, the title of the series, is drawn entirely
from the first thirteen volumes or 1,300 poems. As I write, new volumes appear
and long after I have finished, the poet will still be engaged in his Olympian
task. I find myself in the midst of a creative act, watching it grow like
a huge chain of mountains, closer to the original impulses of the work than
a critic is normally privileged to be and, because of this nearness, somehow
bound up in the work itself, not standing apart from it.
In this chapter I do not seek to assess a finished work but to portray an
act, a movement, a process of evolution. Before me lie the first few richly
coloured strands of an immense oeuvre. Within it things are taking shape-thoughts,
ideas and feelings that the poet will return to again and again before he
is done. And still there are other areas which remain as yet undisclosed,
containing insights and revelations beyond the scope of our imaginings. Who
can say where the poet will lead us and what he will unfurl? I write of my
response to the material that has appeared to date with a full consciousness
that mine is merely a partial glimpse of what may well prove to be one of
the most profound and significant poetical works of this century
