The stream that has

      the strength to seek,

              the urge to merge,   

                  cannot be drowned and lost

         in any stagnant, wayside pool. 

          With a merry song, or a mighty roar,

    it will proceed towards its goal.               

I cannot give you the sea of peace & bliss,

only turbulence I can endow you with;       

the waters, waking with a mighty roar,

         breaching the dam,

                 carving their own path,

                 dancing,

                    seeking the sea,  

                                    to merge.

A Wrong Analogy

The poem sounds inspiring, but the analogy of a stream merging with the ocean is wrong, for there are no separate stream and ocean to begin with. The idea of two becoming one is a fallacy, for there are no two. It is all an illusion, for the stream and the ocean are, in truth, ‘illusory’ manifestations of the All-enveloping water-vapour which is All there is. Everything is the vapour, including you and me! This flowing in space and time to meet the ocean is just a game, designed for the unenlightened to experience separation. This duality is essential to produce the yearning for union with the Truth, culminating in the enlightened experience of non-duality. In truth, there is no separation, no distance, no path, and no time needed to be one with the Conscious Intelligent Allness which is All there is.

Steam, not Stream

When one is afire with thirst for the Truth, one can vaporise and merge with the all-encompassing water-vapour in an instant. There is no need to play the stream and ocean game. But one realizes this truth only after one becomes enlightened! An enlightened guru playfully re-plays this game – he condenses, to become the cloud, and pour down as the torrential rain, to help the seeking stream rush faster towards the ocean. The stream seeks, because it is unaware that it is the same water-vapour which is also the ocean, and the ‘guru’ plays along till the stream realizes that it is nothing but an ‘illusion,’ and in truth it is only ‘steam’ – the all-encompassing vapour.