Hymn to the Universal Lord

We have no trouble lighting a fire today. We simply take a match and by friction ignite the chemical mixture that coats the head of it. But, through the ages of human history, most of the earth's people have not had matches. Some started fire by striking together certain kinds of stones.

The oldest and commonest way, probably, was by the friction of two pieces of wood, one of them being a sharp stick that they turned rapidly, like a drill, against the other, which was a block. You have heard of something like this practiced by the Native American tribes.

This was the method used by the men of ancient India too, three to four thousand years ago. In this story from the Upanishads, the teacher uses this way of producing fire as an illustration. He tells the student to think of his own body as the lower piece of wood, the block, and to think of the sacred syllable OM as the pointed piece, or drill. Then, by meditation with the help of the word OM, a kind of "friction" will be created that will purify his mind and in due time, God will be revealed.

"For," said the teacher, "if you look into your own soul, you will see the Lord, but you must look sincerely and earnestly. By pressing sesame seeds, we get oil from them; by churning milk, we get out the butter. And there is water under dry riverbeds, but we really have to dig to discover it. That divine Self is hiding here in everything, just as butter is hidden in milk. That is what the wise men seek to know through spiritual practice. That is Brahman, the Goal Supreme."

Then the teacher began to chant this hymn to the Lord, who is everywhere:

"I know You, Ancient One, the Lord of shining light,
Who dwells beyond all darkness and the night;
By knowing You alone can a man cross over death,
There is no other path for him to take.

"All heads are Your heads, all faces Your faces,
You dwell in the heart's cave and all hidden places.
Through the whole universe, You have extended Yourself.
You are Shiva, the auspicious, the ever-present Lord.

"With hands and feet everywhere, eyes and ears
Everywhere, heads and mouths everywhere,
You have filled up every corner of space.
Smaller than smallest and larger than largest.

"Present are You in the depths of our heart.
When free of desires and unshaken by sorrow, we
Seek for You only, then by Your grace, Your
Form and Your glory stand clearly before us.

"You are the woman and You are the man,
You are the youth and the maiden, too;
The old one tottering there with his cane
Is You, who are born here again and again.

"You are the bird of dark-blue hue and the parrot green
With bright red eyes; You are the thunder-cloud's black sheen,
You are the seasons and the seas. Beginningless and
Endless, You are He from whom all worlds are born.

"Can men ever roll up space like a skin?
Then, unless they have known You without and within,
How can they cross over sorrow and death?
O You, whose light needs no other light.

"Creator of even Brahma, the creator,
Revealer to him of the knowledge called Veda,
To You, Lord, I come in my longing for freedom;
To You, Lord, for refuge, with reverence, I come!"