we answer each other’s prayers.

 

.

That which is awake even in our sleep,
Giving form in dreams to the objects of 
Sense craving, that indeed is pure light,
The one Self, containing all the cosmos.

As the same fire assumes different shapes
When it consumes objects differing in shape,
So does the one Self take the shape of every being. 

As the same air assumes different shapes
When entering objects differing in shape,
So does the one Self fill the shape of all beings.

The one Self multiplies into the heart of all beings,
Changeless amidst the transformations,
Conscious in all beings.
We answer each other’s prayers.

The Self is the light reflected by all.
We shine for each other.

Knowing the senses to be separate
from the Self, and the sense experience
To be fleeting, we grieve no more.

When the five senses are stilled, when the mind
Is stilled, when the intellect is stilled,
There is Yoga, the stillness of unity.

From the heart there radiates a hundred
and one vital tracks. One of them rises 
To the top of the head. This way leads to the truth.

The one love, not larger than the thumb,
Is ever enshrined in the heart. 

Know thyself to be the one Self.
Know thyself to be the one Self.


—The Katha Upanishad
lessons from Eknath Easwaren version



 

.