Yogananda's One That's Everywhere

Dramatizing Divine Omnipresence

Jan 26, 2009 Linda Sue Grimes

Paramahansa Yogananda, in his poem "One That's Everywhere," reveals that Divine Omnipresence strives to reveal Itself through all creatures, even the inanimate.

Paramahansa Yogananda’s “One That’s Everywhere” from Songs of the Soul features two inconsistently rimed stanzas. The speaker celebrates all natural creatures, including language-blessed humankind.

First Stanza: “The wind plays”

In the first stanza, the speaker begins slowly with a short list of nature’s entities all coupled with their own special activity: “The wind plays, / The tree sighs, / The sun smiles, / The river moves.” These varied things of nature offer the human individual a vast field for thought and wondrous amazement about the natural environment.

This speaker interprets the activities in playful and colorful ways. For example, instead of observing mundanely that the wind blows, his cheerful, creative mind interprets, “the wind plays.” Similarly, instead of merely averring that the sun shines, he offers the unique perspective that “the sun smiles.”

To remark about the largest natural feature of mankind’s field of vision, the speaker offers an expansive line: “Feigning dread, the sky is blushing red / At the sun-god’s gentle tread.” The beauty of the sky becomes palpable through this marvelous interpretation of events. The triple rime, dread-red-thread, multiplies the phenomenal effect of sun’s rays as they paint the sky.

The speaker then dramatizes the daily occurrence of planet Earth transforming from dark to light: “Earth changes robes / Of black and starlit night / For dazzling golden light.”

Second Stanza: “Dame nature love herself t’array”

Referring to Mother Nature as “Dame Nature,” the speaker reports that this metaphoric lady of nature enjoys decking herself out in fabulous colors that humanity observes as the “changing seasons.” He then proclaims that “the murmuring brook” attempts to convey “hidden thought” that an unseen, inner spirit brings to the flowing water.

This deeply-inspired, observant speaker then reveals, “The birds aspire to sing / Of things unknown that swell within.” These linguistically mute creatures of nature all are motivated by the unseen, unheard, omnipresent Divinity, about which they strive to articulate in their own unique manner.

But it is humankind, who “first speaks in language true.” While the other natural creatures, also made in the image of the Divine, strive to express their own individuality as they sing of their inner spirit, only the human creature has been blessed with the ability to create and employ a fully formed system of communication.

The human individual is capable of speaking “loud and clear” and “with meaning new.” While all other divinely-inspired, natural creatures may partially express the spirit of the Supreme Intelligence, the human individual may “fully declare / Of One that’s everywhere.”

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Paramahansa Yogananda