Shilpa Roy Kota

They say, I am not the mind, I am not the body

They say, I am the soul

I am the Universe

I am the God Itself

But how do I know when I have not seen God ever

I have not even seen the whole Universe

How do I know what they say is true

I see me as me

I see them as them

I see the ant

I see the leaf

I see the sun, the land, the clouds, the unlimited expanse

It is not me

It is outside of me

How can it be me

How can I be all of it

I love someone

I dislike a few others

How can they all be me

How can I be all of them

They say I am the Universe

They say I am God Itself

But how do I know

Each day, I try to see me as part of them and them a part of me

But I still see the ant different from me

I still see the leaf withering and dying

I did not die with it

So how can it be me or me, it

How?

I still don’t know

I spent lifetimes not knowing

Then, one day, I woke up and I knew what I had known all along

I am the Universe and the Universe is me

I am God Itself

This day onwards, I knew what was missing all along

It was not the knowledge

It was the experience of being one with the Universe

It was the experience of being the One