In God Makes the Rivers to Flow; An Anthology of the World’s Sacred Poetry & Prose, Eknath Easwaran includes a selection from Kabir entitled “The Temple of the Lord.”  I’ve written the following poem-like reflections inspired by this selection.

The Fragrance Within

As fragrance is within the flower’s blossom,
So is the Lord within thee, unrevealed.
But as the musk-deer searches for musk in forest grass,
So does man search for Him outside
And finds Him not.
—Kabir

It’s impossible to see the fragrance in the flower’s blossom, yet we know it’s there.

Why rely on the eyes to see all?

We might seek to smell what we can feel.

We might search for God in the scent of grass.

And we will catch the scent of God, but it will not be the only one.

We might bite into a rose blossom, seeking God in our mouth.

And in the bite we will taste delicacy, and it will be God, but it will not be all of God.

We might wrap our arms around an angora rabbit, seeking to hold onto God.

And God will be soft and restless, but God will not only be soft and restless.

We might listen to a wooden flute, hoping to hear God making music.

We will hear God’s enchanted breath, but God is more than that breath.

We might wake early to see the sunrise, longing to see the light of God.

And God will spread a radiant light across the sky.

God will stretch across the sky, warm orange and rose.

But God is more than orange and rose.

We might climb mountains, seeking God in the peaks.

We might dive deep in the sea.

We might take flight.

We might travel from country to country, from continent to continent.

Seeking God and finding God, but not finding the depths of God.

The more we seek God outside ourselves, the more we are seeking to see what we can only feel.

There is another option.

We may seek to smell the fragrance of our hearts.

We may seek to see the radiance of our minds.

We may seek to hear the music of our veins.

We may seek to taste our own strength.

We may seek to feel that ineffable presence that dwells in all our cells.

We may reach within ourselves with our awareness.

And we will catch a scent that we can’t smell.

It will be the part of ourselves we didn’t know we could know.

But when we catch that fragrance, we will recognize it.

It will be the truest truth.