Perhaps You Didn't Notice

Perhaps you didn't notice how,

when you awoke this morning,

you took your first breath

in the another dimension,

having shifted to the next world

where atoms vibrate to a different Law.

Where it doesn't matter whether

you are on the Left or Right,

Christian or Muslim, a do-er
or non-doer, of the East or the West.

It doesn't matter anymore

whether you see One or Two.

You need not wear a veil here

in the softer daylight where

the only authority is Presence.

The tribe you once belonged to

leaves no scent.

The glow of your essential oil

anoints the meadows now,

greening branches, thickening buds,

attracting the famished who need
only your touch, your tear,

no longer drawn by your doctrines

but by your musk and radiance.

It matters not what movement you join

or which master you follow,

as long as she is the one who descends

through your breath, blossoming

in the splendor of your chest;

as long as you rest in your
hollowest core of healing silence,

the formless flower that keeps

opening its empty golden cup

to pour out overwhelming fragrances,

distilled from the dark furrows

that runs down your body.

Arise and come now,

it is morning, begin your task.

This whole planet thirsts for your 

merest glow, the way it rainbows

through your face to re-create

our faces, each like no other.

We long to hear the new song flowing 

from your lips: “Chitananda Rupam, 

Shivoham, Shivoham: I am the divine, 

I am the divine, the very form 

of consciousness and bliss.”

Don't ask what work you will do today.

Just keep listening for this music

in the heart of every stranger.

Photograph: 'Inward Beauty' by Kristy Thompson