In God Makes the Rivers to Flow; An Anthology of the World’s Sacred Poetry & Prose, Eknath Easwaran has included a selection from the Isha Upanishad and entitled it “The Inner Ruler.”  I have written a series of poem-like reflections based on this selection.  This is the fourth one in the series.

The Self

The Self seems to move, but is ever still.
He seems far away, but is ever near.
He is within all, and he transcends all.
–from “The Inner Ruler” in the Isha Upanishad

A telling name, “Self.”

Call it “Us,” “We,” “You,” “Me.”  The essence of what is true.

It only seems to move when we see it outside ourselves, when we make it “Other,” when we push it away.

It stays still in the Silence within us.

It is who we truly are.

We cannot separate ourselves from the Self.  We cannot run away from it.

We can only realize it.  In the depths of ourselves.  In the depths of all things.  In the depths of Beyond.

Every yearning we feel is truly a yearning to know the Self.  Yearning in disguise.  We long to know the Truth, but we don’t know what we truly long for.

To find the Me that is more Me than me.  To find the real You.

Freedom from judgment.  Freedom from worry.  Freedom from thought.  Freedom from things.  Freedom from need.

A knowing that pumps the heart and breathes the lungs.

The part of ourselves and everything else that is Pure Love.