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

Love United

To be united with the Lord of Love

Is to be freed from all conditioning.

This is the state of Self-realization,

Far beyond the reach of words and thoughts.

To be united with the Lord of Love,

Imperishable, changeless, beyond cause

And effect, is to find infinite joy.

Brahman is beyond all duality,

Beyond the reach of thinker and thought.

—The Tegobindu Upanishad

To be united with the Lord of Love

is to forget I am a daughter, a sister,

an aunt, a cousin, a niece, a writer,

a seeker, a wanter, a needer. It is

to forget all desire but desire for the Lord.

There are so many things I need to forget,

like my aversion to pain and craving for pleasure.

If I could reach that state of Self-realization

it would make no difference to me

whether I receive criticism or praise.

I wouldn’t care whether or not someone

served me food that was to my liking.

I would accept blame with equanimity.

I would feel no shame. I would be free

of judgment. I would see all others

with the eyes of love. I wouldn’t even

notice other people’s bodies or clothes or status.

To me, everyone would be equally beautiful.

I would be glad to meet everyone,

seeing them as their divine selves.

Words would not be able to express

the beauty that I would see all around me.

Words would not be able to express

the love that I would feel. And my thoughts

would be so pure they would barely register as thoughts.

At least that is what I imagine.

I am trying to conceive of infinite joy.

Would it include infinite enthusiasm?

Would it feel like floating in the sea

or in the clouds? Would I be completely buoyant?

Would I be so excited to face the day

I would hardly be able to contain myself?

Would it be like standing on the summit

of Mount Everest? Would it be like

walking through the depths of a rain forest?

Would it be like holding a newborn baby

in my arms? Would it be like the heights

of sexual orgasm? Would I be coming

all the time? Would I forget my body?

Would I merge my body and thoughts

so that I don’t know one from the other?

I imagine my identity would be extinguished,

my ego would disappear. I imagine

I would know myself as the Lord of Love.

I imagine I would forget the world of experience

and experience something like song,

I would feel myself singing love

and know that there is nothing else.