Dr. Shruti Shankar Gaur

The following poem was first published in Four Decades and the unedited version can be read at Dr. Shruti Shankar Gaur’s Instagram handle.

In every dance I have danced,

In every song that I ever sang,

In every book that I have read.

In every word I’ve ever written,

I have met God.

At every beginning and end,

At every sunrise and sunset,

In the darkest of nights,

That I’ve ever witnessed,

I have met God.

I discovered,

God doesn’t follow rules, 

God isn’t found in a specific place,

God isn’t available,

Only at certain times or days,

Instead, I found God,

In many odd ways.

The omnipresent is

Tat Tvam Asi,

Thou Art That, 

I am in you,

You are in me.

I figured it out,

To meet God,

I didn’t have to chant or meditate,

I didn’t have to visit a holy place,

I didn’t need to perform sacred rituals.

I realized,

Aforesaid is commercialized,

Instead, I met God just by being me,

And appreciating the beauty,

Within and around my vicinity.

It’s we,

Who complexifies the Thee,

God is the simplest,

That can be.

By loving every human being,

By acknowledging them with dignity,

As God’s creation should be,

I met God easily.

I keep things simple,

For me, you are God personified,

It doesn’t matter how you are defined,

By the world of Thee.

You and I have the same power,

You and I feel the same emotions,

You and I are indistinguishable.

Outwardly, you and I may look different,

Labelled and categorized as distinct,

By gender, race, caste, religion,

Region, ability, or disability.

If I blur my view by the labels and tags,

I will be blinded to miss the Divine,

If I can’t see God in you,

The God in me, I won’t find.

Then, finding God will be,

As difficult as can be,

I will be searching low and high,

Singing the songs and hymns,

Night and day, praising the Almighty,

But I will be far away,

From the grace so deserving,

If I can’t see God in you and me.

P.S.: In case you are interested to read my poem: Deal with the Devil or a blog Providence