Fill the heart with love; then, the words coming out of the heart will be full of vitality and power. There is no Shakthi (Power) more effective than Prema (Love). The grammar of Love makes the words enter the hearts of the listeners and moves them into acceptance, appreciation and action. A child's prattle has no grammar, but, it wins the love of the mother. Raamakrishna Paramahamsa did not know the word 'pension'; he said 'pence' once, instead of pension. Swaami Vivekaananda interposed with the correct word, but, the Paramahamsa said that the word did not matter, it was enough if what was meant to be communicated was understood. The bhaava (the idea intended to be communicated) is the real thing; the bhaasha (language in which it is clothed) is of superficial interest only. I want you to imbibe the bhaava; I want the poets to inculcate pure bhaava, not pretty bhaasha.
When I speak to you, I do not pause to examine whether I am following your rules of grammar; the words pour from the heart, full of Prema (divine love). The heart renders all words sweet and soft. Sweet words and sweet manners lead to sweet actions and sweet reactions.
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.
ANTICIPATING the rains at the appropriate time of the year, as dictated by previous experience of himself and his forefathers, the ryot prepares the field with plough and harrow; then, when the rains come and soak the furrows, he sows the seeds, so that they may sprout and shoot through the soil. If he delays or desists, how can he reap the harvest? Or, if, when the crop is ready for the sickle, he does not reap the sheaves and bundles them home, how can his granary be filled with the food he needs must have? The rain is the gift of God; man can only pray for it, and propitiate God by righteousness. The ploughing, the sowing, the weeding and the reaping are the sadhanas man must undertake to deserve the Grace and to get the strength to thank God for His Gifts. Without God, life is like a school without a teacher; it is a wire with no current passing through it; it is a body with no soul. God is in us, around us and beyond us; as the air is imperceptible in the absence of breeze or of t...
