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

Non-Physical before Physical

 Spiritual aspirants ask their teacher:
What is the cause of the cosmos? Is it Brahman?
From where do we come? By what live?
Where shall we find peace at last?
What power governs the duality
Of pleasure and pain by which we are driven?
—The Shvetashvatara Upanishad

There was a time when all that existed was non-physical,

a realm of attraction,

where everything drew to itself

that which was like unto itself.

And the non-physical realm said, it is good.

The non-physical realm was a space beyond space

in a time beyond time.

It was a place of great imagination

and great beauty.

It still is.

And the beings of that realm

wanted space that took up space,

time that created delays.

They wanted manifestations

that slowly changed.

They wanted thoughts

that took time to create.

They wanted feelings and they wanted bodies that felt distinct.

They wanted density.

They wanted a place that would change their being,

that would expand their knowing,

a place that they could play.

They wanted to forget for a time

their connection to the divine,

so that the returning memory

would make the connection more real.

The non-physical vibrated faster than an electric shock.

To be what these beings wanted to be,

a part of them would have to slow down.

The beings that longed for density

drew together and dreamed

the physical dimension.

They gave it time.

They gave it space.

They made it a place of touch and taste, scent, sight, and sound.

They dreamed a dream that seemed so real

from within

yet it was just a reflection of the non-physical.

They dreamed a dream of physical beings

each of whom dreamed their own individual dreams,

all of whom collectively dreamed the dreams

of the planets, the dream of the universe.

And it was a perfectly balanced dream.

Everyone drew unto themselves

that which vibrated at the same rate.

Everyone created what was theirs to create.

But there was a delay between thought and form.

Waves became particles.

Particles became waves.

The essence of life stayed the same.

And the lessons came.

And feelings became the interface

between non-physical beings

and the physical beings they became.

And some of the beings woke from the dream

within the dream, and the dream changed.

There was great beauty and great shame,

joy and sorrow,

love and hate,

courage and the fear it overcame.

And walking through the dream

were the ones who were awake,

there to remind those intoxicated by the dream

of the non-physical realm from which they came.