Namdev - There is only the One

"He is the One in many,
countless are His shapes and forms.
He pervades all that exists;
wherever I look, He is there.
But very few perceive this reality,
for Maya ever enchants us
with her multiple reflections
of color and alluring beauty.

Everything is Gobind [Krishna],
Gobind is everything.
Nothing that exists
is without Gobind:
the one thread strings
innumerable beads --
Prabhu [the Lord] Himself is the thread,
the threader, the threaded.

River and waves,
foam and bubbles
have all their being
within water itself.
This play of things
is the sport of Parbhama [Reality].
The One cannot be thought
different from the other.

Hope is a lie
and desire a mere dream --
yet both are construed
as actual reality.
But when my guru
gave me his holy wisdom,
I awoke from my dream
and my heart yielded.

Namdeva says,
Behold Hari's [God's] creation;
ponder upon it
with all your heart,
and you will see
that in every pore,
in every living thing,
there is only the one Murari [Krishna]."

Namdev (1270 - 1350)
from _Songs and Saints from the Adi Granth_
Translated by Nirmal Dass