Sri Sathya Sai Speaks

Since we have today a few poets reading their poems before us, I am tempted to tell them something about their art. The poets of today are in the forefront of those who regard God as dead, a decorative piece, if not an encumbrance or a nuisance! They cater to their fans sweets coated with fashionable slogans and catchy phrases. They never care for the higher values of life, or the lasting ideals for living. Their poetry deals with external objects, sensuous emotions, and trivial tinsel. It is all extremely shallow and sapless. Real poetry emanates from the call of the Divine within, to express itself in sublime vocabulary. It grants lasting joy to the poet as well as the reader. It does not lower one's estimate of the world and its Creator. Readers must be drawn more often to read the poem, and each time they browse on it and ruminate over its lines, new vistas of meaning must open up before their minds. Then only can the poem be for all time and for all men. Poets have to discover God first and then, disseminate their ecstasy among those that are thirsty for that bliss.