In God Makes the Rivers to Flow; An Anthology of the World’s Sacred Poetry & Prose, Eknath Easwaran includes a selection from the Sri Ramakrishna entitled “I Have Joined My Heart to Thee.” I’ve written the following poem-like reflections inspired by this selection.
Love and Light
I have joined my heart to Thee: all that exists art Thou;
Thee only have I found, for Thou art all that exists.
O Lord, Beloved of my heart! Thou art the Home of all;
Where indeed is the heart in which Thou dot not dwell?
—Sri Ramakrishna
We meet in my heart, although you are my heart.
The things I create, you create, for you are my hands and mind.
You are lover and beloved, through me you love yourself.
When I am warm under the covers, it is you that comforts me.
When I bathe, I am immersed in you.
You cleanse my body as you cleanse my heart.
When I eat, you nourish me.
You created my fruit out of yourself.
You are constantly giving yourself away,
but “away” is not the right word,
you circulate yourself; you give yourself to yourself.
What do you want? You want nothing.
You have everything. You are complete.
And I am complete in you. You complete me.
Do you have desires? To love? To expand?
Do you have feelings? Or are you pure thought, active in bliss?
You are love, many say. But do you love?
Do you love through us? Are we your mode of experience?
One cannot love without something or someone to love.
And you are one.
Love is something for you to be, not do.
We are your contemplated thought.
I want to believe that you feel as I feel.
You feel my feelings through me and declare them good.
You think my thoughts through me and declare them good.
There is no judgment in you.
You are love in every person’s life.
You surround each and every one of us in love.
You fill us with love.
You dwell in us as love.
We are composed of love and light.
We are nothing but love and light.
Love and light are all that exists.
Everything else is an illusion composed by the ego, our shadow.
But light has no shadow.
Our shadow doesn’t truly exist.
You look at me and see my perfection.
Nothing else truly is.
