Conflict in the Spirit
“Am ‘I’ Body or the Soul?”
I quarrel with Self and mediate;
When I am on the verge of peace,
My mind and heart agitate.
My mind slowly peels my Self,
Like the layers of an onion;
And shows me my several selves,
Creating kaleidoscopic illusion.
Myriad mirrors reflect me,
How can I know my real Being?
How a drop can know the ocean,
How the seer can be seen?
If Light reflects the matter,
Why does matter simulate?
And if matter is of no import,
Can Light shine sans a surface?
Who can realize the Infinite,
In a frail, finite frame,
Except seeing the whole cloud
In a drop of torrential rain?
How mortification of the flesh
Is gymnastic of the soul?
Why register sins and virtues
Isn’t the Devil part of the Whole?
If God were pure Spirit
Whence came the matter?
If universe is all perfect
Who can make it better?
How inert matter can suffer,
And how can suffer Divine Soul?
Distinction itself is illusion,
God and world are One Whole.
My one self asks, other replies,
And still other gets confused;
The queries are ticklish and endless,
And the war within continues…!
