The Soul has Many Names
The soul has many names
and a thousand vibrations.
Each syllable is an aspect
of our sacred self.
Science names it ‘Atom’
For sadhus it is ‘Atman’
Celtic Druids spoke of ‘Anam’
Shaivaites chant ‘Aham’
Muslims vow ‘Amanah’
while Christians profess ‘Amen’
In ancient Egypt ‘Amen’ means
‘What cannot be seen’
Egyptian praised ‘Amen’
‘Amun’, ‘Atum’ and ‘Aten’
In German ‘aten’ is ‘to breath’,
‘Atmen’, breath of life.
Jews remember ‘Adam’
from whose clay we all began;
the original breath that breathed
original sin.
Yogis speak of Atman
being the soul within us all,
the one primordial atom,
vibrating as sound.
History is one long game
of divine Chinese whispers.
Each hears the name his own sweet way
in her own sweet time.
Many are the branches
on the tree of divine life.
Take me where the nectar birds sing
in sound samadhi.
Poised between song and flight
where wing and word become one
your sacred name reveals my own
in the atman,
the atom,
the atmen,
the anam of Aum.
