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

When Dreamers Dream

 
Through Thy grace the dumb become eloquent,
            the lame run.
—Swami Paramananda

Do you believe in miracles?

The miracles of modern medicine.

The miracles of faith.

Who is the healer of the blind who sees?

The one who now sees?

The one who helped him see?

Or the one source from which came the blindness and the sight?

Never trust the healer who takes credit for the healing.

“I healed myself.”

You did not heal yourself.

“She healed me.”

She did not heal you.

“I was healed by universal principles.”

The principles may have been the method, but they were not the source.

You were healed by the presence, the I am, the Is,

the origin of all, the one who awakened in you your purity.

From a certain point of view, anything is true.

“I healed myself.”

Source healing source.

“She healed me.”

Source healing source.

“I was healed by universal principles”

Source creates the laws and uses them.

Without source, you don’t exist to be healed.

Without source, she cannot channel healing.

Without source, there are no universal principles.

“I was healed by modern medicine.”

Made by source out of source.

Manifestations originate in source, but they are not the origin.

Why worship the manifestations, when one can worship the origin

from which they came?

The blind see.

The dumb speak.

The deaf hear.

The lame walk.

The leprous feel.

People heal in many ways through many methods.

We might easily mistake the channel for the origin.

We might lift the channel high and make a god of him, or her, or it.

The channel might take the credit.

The channel might say, “These things also you will do.”

The channel might give the glory to God.

We might surround the channel or method with a new religion.

We might worship and glorify the channel as greater than ourselves.

We might, we have done it, we will do it again and again.

But among us there will always be those who know.

That there is a ground of all being from which all things spring.

There is an origin without which there would be nothing.

There is a source which unites all that exists as one.

And while we have free will, we cannot do a thing

without the ground of all existence.

We cannot take the credit.

We cannot take the blame.

We are just actors on a stage.

We are just energy taking form.

We are just dreamers in a dream.