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

Living in Wisdom

They live in wisdom

Who see themselves in all and all in them,

Whose love for the Lord of Love has consumed

Every selfish desire and sense craving

Tormenting the heart. Not agitated

By grief or hankering after pleasure,

They live free from lust and fear and anger.

Fettered no more by selfish attachments,

They are not elated by good fortune

Nor depressed by bad. Such are the seers.

—The Bhagavad Gita

Can I see myself in the rapist?

Can I see myself in the thief?

Can I see the rapist and thief in me?

Can I see myself in the narcissist, the narcissist in me?

Can I see myself in the child abuser, the child abuser in me?

Can I see myself in the man who hurt me, the friend who let me down?

Can I see myself in the teacher who singled me out?

Can I see myself in the snake?

Can I see myself in the spider?

Can I see myself in the mouse?

Can I see myself in the rat?

Can I see myself in the ruined building?

Can I see myself in the sewer?

Can I see myself in the trash?

Can I see myself in the cold virus?

Can I see myself in the rash?

Can I see myself in the mountain?

Can I see myself in beach sand?

Can I see myself in the ocean?

Can I see myself in the aria, the sonata, the requiem?

Can I see myself in a rock band?

Can I see myself in the big bang?

Can I see myself in universal expansion?

Can I see myself in the angel?

Can I see myself in the saint?

Can I see myself in the enlightened master?

Can I see myself in the fundamentalist minister?

Can I see myself in God?

I want to see and be seen, to know and be known,

to love and be loved, to touch and be touched.

I want to have all my needs met.

Heck, I want to be filthy rich, alive with abundance.

I want to sit in the silence.

I want to receive all the things of this world.

I can’t say my desires torment my heart,

except for the ones to have more than I have.

I live in a quiet place, afraid of running out of what I need,

determined to live a life of service,

afraid to offer my services to those I’d like to serve.

I can’t say my love for the Lord of Love

has extinguished my selfish desires.

When my mom wants to talk, I don’t always want to listen.

I crave solitude and a sense of purpose.

I don’t see myself in all or all in me.

I eat when I’m not hungry to satisfy my cravings.

I can’t say I’m truly agitated, although I oversleep to calm my nerves.

I don’t know how to gage how I am on the path.

I just know I want to be farther.

I want to see the divine in the people and things I consider the worst.

I want to find myself in dirt.

I want to be at peace even when I’m on the verge of losing everything.

What is possible for me?

Is it possible for me to know I’m not my thoughts?

To be free from lust and fear and anger.

To empty myself of need.

To be satisfied with nothing.

Truly satisfied, needing nothing to change.

It seems there is a horizon I keep walking toward that never grows closer.

The destination is always in the distance, because the destination keeps moving.

Enlightenment is a moving target.

The more I awaken, the farther I have to go.

Perhaps the end of longing is to be so consumed by love

that I love the journey.

Perhaps the journey is the destination

and the more I travel

the more I arrive.