I Am What I Am Poem by Ratnakar Rout

I am not what I am
I am not who I am, as I am known to the world
I am not attached to any material body
Still I rest in it for a while
I have no physical identity
But the name is given to my body.

As I am not known by that perpetually
I do not identify with the fragile body
Thus, I am ignorant of my real identity
I am a formless entity, I know
And appear like a transparent glow
Who can conjoin with it?
That one realizes in deep penance
Drifting it away from the perishable body

I have limited options
Like a pen drive I carry
All the messages encoded in it
Over the ages from birth to birth, in an endless journey
As I am not independent of my ‘Karma’
That is my deeds in different births
When I enter in to a body
I carry the seeds of past ‘Karma’ with me
The moment I land up in a body
The seeds already sown earlier start sprouting
And the plant bears the fruits as such
Which I have to endure, appropriate and pass through
I am bound by my deeds
And ought to enjoy its fruits either good or bad

But I am independent of the physical body and life, I live
I am bit selfish as long as the body behaves
As the sole carrier of mine in the visible world
And remain fit to sustain me; I continue to stay in it.
Make it an abode and dwell in the temple of the body.
When it moves towards its end and appears perishing
I coolly leave it and watch its dissolution from a distance,
Visualize its departure and decay
Its deplorable end, expiry and fragility
Be a witness to its last rites,
Its unification with ‘Panchabhuta’
And the distressed condition of its near and dear ones
I change the body like old worn out cloth
Ordinarily I do not make any choice of the body
Like wind I usually take the shape of the container
But at times the shape and size,
The look and appearance of the previous body
Are reflected in the current structure

I dwell in the body to act
Being independent of any worldly attachment
But the actions are according to the feelings
And events imprinted in the consciousness during the other life
Those had happened with the body in the previous births
Though, I am an onlooker to all such happenings
All along I am indifferent to them
To get me free from ‘Karma’,
The cycle of life and death and to liberate me
This body is my means to reach at my goal.

Time fragments created by men hinders
The perception of time
I am timeless and present eternally
When there is feeling and emotion I appear in a form
Take a shape and move when there is absolute
Vacuum and blank everywhere
Still I am present in nothingness
I contain the universe in me
I am not confined, I can move wherever I like
As I have no boundary I am omnipresent
Omnipotent and omniscient

I am neither a caste nor a creed, nor belong to any
Religion or any particular race or group
I am well within everybody and all are within me
No dichotomy, no discrimination, no difference
I contain all the data of the universe
When I am liberated from the body, cleansing of
All the attachments through self realization
When again I desire to come back with a form
I rest on my consciousness and it is built up
By my deeds like the super structure
Of a building is built in bricks
It requires deep devotion and meditation
Through which I wish to erase all the data
And make the pen drive clean
If I continue with the attachments further
The consciousness carries data from one form to another form
And they are the seeds of all confusion and suffering.
As I have no beginning or end
I have created the concept of time
And I have given it a name.

Time expires, time ends as it appears
But I continue here and continue
Till the end and even after the end
At times I contradict my own assumption
Does time expire? Does time end?
Time is my creation. Time never rests
It moves, moves and moves on
It is perpetual as I am
Time never stops, time never flees
I stay with the time, move with it
I am time, time is me, and time is mine
Time has no fragmentation
Time has no compartmentalization
It is not subject to any division
Time has no past, no present, and no future
It revolves, it repeats, it reappears
It mingles at a point, converges there
And emanates as and when required
As if from there it only evolves and spreads.

Time move is a perception that the people in this
Virtual world perceive & conceptualize
May it be the greatest ignorance?
When every thing moves with the time
How could time rest, stay unmoved?
I am the seed, the real seed. I germinate,
I grow the foliage, I blossom, and I bear the fruit.
I exist when there is physical presence of some
Or existence of no body at all
I am grounded firmly in vacuum.
My place is the limitless space spread everywhere
I only conjoin with ‘HIM’
Who is the sole authority of this endless kingdom?
When ‘HE’ embraces, all my moves stop automatically
And I contain in HIM and everything becomes
Cool, calm, serene and adorable
There I am liberated and I achieve salvation.

I am neither young nor old
I have no age, nor am I bound by time
I am perennial. I never die nor live. I am immortal.
I am neither a king nor a subject.
I am neither an oppressed nor an oppressor.
This time I am a shepherd
The next time I may be a prince or a ruler
I am neither a criminal nor a philanthropist
I am neither a saint nor a servant, I am
Neither a monk nor a weird, I am what I am
I am a director, I only organize how a drama
For which some one is attached to be enacted.
I am the regulator, the prompter behind the curtain

Things come and go, I see. But I never depart
I am here since the time immemorial
I am nameless. But I contain all the names
Whenever I wish, I can take a name
And be known by that name
I am penniless, but at the same time
I possess all the wealth
This day I am a Fakir, the other day
I can become a millionaire
At the moment I am a poet, the other day
I can become a heartless dictator
I can become any thing any day I wish to.
For me, there is no frontier,
No boundary, no passport or visa.
I can swim, I can fly, I can walk, and I can float,
And I can do what I intend to do
I am what I am; I am here since the inception,
I shall be here till the end
I am soil, I am fire, I am wind,
I am ego and I am the desire, you know

I am what I am; I am what you are too
You and I are the same
I do not want to take anything from anyone
As I am already filled in
I eagerly aspire to share peace, love and affection
Remember, I am not the body but I drive the same
I am a perennial flow, I am an eternal glow, the ‘OM’, OH Me.