I walk through this world like a guest in a stranger’s place,
I speak in a tongue that my own heart can’t embrace,
Do not think these words are my own, true and clear,
I borrow the language of the echoes I hear.I walk in the day with a chain on my soul,
And play a rehearsed, an obedient role,
I smile and I nod in the bright morning light,
Then beg for my freedom in the pit of the night.They see me in temples, they see me in streets,
A face in the crowd that the daylight greets,
But I am a letter that’s sealed and unsigned,
A lover whose true name no one will ever find.I dwell in a house that was built by another’s hand,
And walk on a path laid across the land,
But under the ground, a river runs deep,
And the promises sown are the ones that I keep.You witness the shadow I cast on the wall,
Not my true spirit anchored beyond rise and fall,
Know this person you think you perceive,
Is a glimpse of the tide, but not of the sea.I pray every day for my freedom, like a prisoner,
I cry every night for my union, like a lover,
Do not mistaken me for how I look,
I am one but what you see is another.
~Sw. Chidananda Tirtha