I was talking to Tom, the university's other
graduate student in Hinduism,
about Krishna telling us in the Gita that he is Vishnu,
God the Preserver, and that He loves us,
and telling us, in another place in the Gita, that he is Brahman,
the impersonal God, the principle of singularity
which didn't create the universe,
but opened to become the universe,
the one become the many,
when a corollary of these ideas struck me:
the universe loves me.
God loves me.
God is the universe.
Therefore, the universe loves me.
And I said, The universe loves me! The whole thing! The universe
loves me! Wow, Tom!
And I didn't notice anybody looking at me,
but I think Tom did, because he said he'd better hurry
across the street to the little market
to get a snack before class started
which left me alone with the universe
and wondering if I said that too loudly
for the econ students who don't care
whether the universe loves them,
as they can see no practical significance to this,
but who themselves love me
whether they yet realize it or not.
Doug Wilkinson grew up in Los Angeles where he earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Philosophy and Theology from Loyola Marymount University. He currently lives in Washington, DC, and has completed the course work for a Master of Arts degree in Spirituality at the Catholic University of America and the course work for a Master of Arts degree in Hinduism at American University. He taught philosophy at the College of Southern Maryland for ten years and now works as an online book dealer. His poems have appeared in Heliotrope, House Taken Over, Connections, and Avatar, and one was a winner in the Arlington County Moving Words Poetry Competition and appeared on the Metro buses in Northern Virginia during the summer of 2003.
