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The path of Sri Chinmoy's words is curvilinear-they address our souls directly Though their source is mystical, the preoccupation of the poet is strenuously practical. The poems not only portray spiritual states but carry messages, teach principles and spiritual laws. The puissance and intensity of the poet's language is derived from what Sri Aurobindo referred to as "the stress of the soul-vision behind the word."[6] In many cases, the reader's attention is engaged at the outset by a powerful kind of open letter or address:

YOU HAVE LOST

You have lost
    Your beloved Satisfaction-God
        Because
You have overfed
    Your insistent ambition-horse.    (no. 28)

LET HOPE ONCE MORE REFRESH YOU

Let hope once more
    Refresh you.
Let faith once more
    Guide you.
Let surrender once more
    Fulfil you.                       (no. 215)

Some of these poems carry the force and conviction of imperative commands: commands issuing not from the judgement of the poet as an individual but rather from a concerned and watchful consciousness that is in harmony with those ideals which are the ground and essence of all existence. Consequently, these imperative poems may be seen as signposts for the spiritual journey-jets of concentrated thought: