In God Makes the Rivers to Flow; An Anthology of the World’s Sacred Poetry & Prose, Eknath Easwaran includes a selection from Swami Paramananda entitled “Origin of All.” I’ve written the following poem-like reflections inspired by this selection.
The Doer
Thou art the only Doer.
Give us strength, purity, and inspiration.
Teach us how to surrender to Thee, how to call Thee.
—Swami Paramananda
God drives my car when I drive my car.
God washes my dishes and cooks my spaghetti.
God puts my clothes in the washer and dryer.
God writes my stories and poems.
God walks around the neighborhood in my body.
God mows my mother’s lawn.
God takes my showers.
God eats my dinner.
God makes my morning latte.
God calls my friends.
God goes to my church on Sunday and fellowships with strangers.
Yes, God, it is you flying that airplane high in the sky.
Yes, God, it is you calling my neighbor’s children home.
Yes, God, it is you playing in my neighbor’s back yard.
You are governing this country, in all your distressing disguises.
You are at war all over the world.
Without you, none of this could happen.
Without you, none of this could be.
I am in awe of the way you let me choose what you do.
You let my neighbor choose what you do.
You let the president choose what you do.
But still, it is you who does each and every thing.
You are the only doer.
You who sits in the silence of meditation.
You who plants the pipe bomb.
My choices are your choices, even when they are shadow choices.
My choices are your choices, even when I am not being true to your highest form.
You eat what I eat, even when I eat things that do my body harm.
There’s a part of me that wants to find the line that shows where I end
and you begin.
But there is no separation.
So how is it, that we are free to choose.
What am I if I am you but not the totality of you?
A drop in the ocean cannot be separated from the ocean.
It cannot be defined.
But I have a body made of many things including boundaries.
I can claim to be a subject and you the object of my devotion.
I can claim to be a subject and you the other which I wish to be more like.
Where do I end, and you begin?
What actions are mine and what actions are yours through me?
How can I have free will if I am not free from you?
What is this shadow that I cast?
Is it real? Is it you too?
Or is it the illusion that free will creates?
You are the only doer, so if I do something wrong, do you do it too?
And am I a fool for believing I could do something wrong, when you
do everything I do?
Grant me the grace of doing what only my highest self would do!
Grant me the joy of being pure as the ground of being that breathes me through.
Teach me to center myself in the you within me
so that I am inspired to be more like you, more like truth.
