Speaking Of Siva: Touching The Feet Of God
NOTE: A version of this essay was originally published in 2015 on my old blog, and was one of the most popular pieces there. I have since cut down the essay for brevity and clarity, as well as revised any grammatical errors and spelling mistakes.
Speaking Of Siva is not a book that I intended to read. I was looking for Thich Nhat Hanh’s Cry of Vietnam in the library, and while scanning the shelves, I came across this little-known book of Hindu poetry. I must confess that I don’t know a whole lot about Hinduism. The closest thing to Hindu literature I’ve read in my lifetime was Mohandas Gandhi’s autobiography. Through this book of poetry, I had hoped to understand something or another about the Hindu religion. After all, India is the most populated democracy in the world, to not know about their beliefs would be a mistake, especially in today’s interconnected day and age.
Speaking Of Siva is a poetry collection translated by A.K. Ramanujan. The poems in question are called vacanas which means, “what is said.” Ramanujan described them thusly,
“Vacana, as an active mode, stands in opposition to both the sruti and the smrti: not what is heard, but what is said; not remembered or received, but uttered here and now. To the saints, religion is not a spectator sport, a reception, a consumption; it is an experience of Now, a way of being. This distinction is expressed in the language of the vacanas, the forms that vacanas take. Though medieval Kannada was rich in native Dravidian metres, and in borrowed Sanskritic forms, no metrical line or stanza is used in the vacanas. The saints did not follow any of these models” (37).
These “saints” that Ramanujan speaks of are Basavanna, Devara Dasimayya, Mahadeviyakka, and Allama Prabu. These saints protested against the Hindu mainstream, as well the apparent rigid dichotomy between Hinduism’s ‘great’ and ‘little’ traditions. Ramanujan writes that the heart of vacana is a devotion to a god, or a particular form of that god, Shiva. They reject the effectiveness of the ‘great’ Vedic texts, as well as the ‘little’ traditions of local gods and goddesses (25). This poetry must have been as radical for India as Saint Paul’s preaching of Christianity was for the Greeks. These saints were off to evangelize, and redirect the flow of Hinduism onto a singly deity,
“If, as these saints believed, he also believes that his god is the true god, the only god, it becomes imperative to convert the misguided and bring light to the benighted. Missions are born. Bhakti religions proselytize, unlike classical Hinduism. Some of the incandescence of Virasavia poetry is the white heat of truth-seeing and truth-saying in a dark deluded world; their monotheism lashes out in an atmosphere of animism and polytheism” (27).
In introducing the book, Ramanujan opens with a vacana that he feels is best representative of the ideas celebrated by this protest movement within Hinduism. The poem is by Basavanna:
“The rich
will make temples for Siva.
What shall I,
a poor man,
do?
My legs are pillars,
the body the shrine,
the head a cupola
of gold.
Listen, O lord of the meeting rivers,
things standing shall fall,
but the moving ever shall stay,” (19).
Having been raised a Catholic, the gods and goddesses of Hinduism are especially jarring. They are not ephemeral supreme rulers of omniscience like Yahweh or Allah, nor do they take on the fragile human form, like Christ. They are something out of the myths of ancient civilizations, or if you want to compare to an active religion, the kami of Shinto. These are very human. Earthly gods that fight in glorious battles and enjoy glorious sex. The above poem by Basavanna conveys just that, a desire to connect the divine (abstract) with the material (concrete). In fact, the linga, a physical symbol used to represent Shiva, is very phallic in appearance, and is often accompanied by the yoni, which represents the womb.
To be fair, even the Abrahamic religions have traits of this yearning to root the transcendent to the perceptible. The Song of Solomon in the Hebrew Bible took a very Hindu approach, using carnal sex as a metaphor for God’s love. In the Gospels, there’s the confounding figure of Christ, a contradiction, he was fully God and fully man. In Islam, the Qur’an describes the afterlife as a paradise with running waters, fruitful gardens, and maidens who look after you called the Houri.
Basvanna’s poem features a poor man who cannot contribute to gifts to a temple, and so becomes himself a temple. It is also suggested that there is a difference between being a temple and making one. As Ramanujan explains, “The poem draws a distinction between making and being. The rich can only make temples. They may not be or become temples by what they do. Further what is made is a mortal artifact, but what one is is immortal,” (20). Blessed are the poor, indeed.
I’ll comment where I can, but I believe that with poetry, one should read and contemplate upon the letters for themselves. Meditate on when these bhakti poets felt, and feel it for yourself.
Basavanna (Basava) (1105 AD–— 1167 AD)
Ramanujan says that Basavanna had been dedicated to Shiva, the Lord of the Meeting Rivers, since the age of sixteen. He found the caste system of society and the rituals of his home to be shackling to his faith, so he left home in search of better spirituality. Basavanna soon found a guru, with whom he studied religious texts like the Vedas. It is said that Shiva himself came to him in a dream and ordered Basavanna to find King Bijjala. Basavanna refused, not wanting to leave his spiritual bliss. So Shiva came to him again and said that he would appear in the mouth of a Sacred Bull. Sure enough, when Basavanna waited by the Stone Bull, Shiva came in the form of a linga on its tongue. This was the sign that he needed to go onward. Basavanna got close to King Bijjala by marrying his uncle’s daughter, Gangambike. Basavanna eventually rose to occupy the position of king’s minister. Basavana’s egalitarian teachings which disregarded social norms and challenged religious orthodoxy attracted many devotees to him. This defiance, of course, angered many traditionalists. For instance, when a marriage between a former outcast and a former brahmin occurred, they were infuriated. Bijjala tried to sate them by sentencing the fathers of the bride and bridegroom to death, but this only further angered them to commit violence against ‘state and society.’ Basavanna, committed to non-violence, unsuccessfully tried to convert the extremists. This prompted him to depart in failure. Bijjala was later assassinated (61–64).
In spite of his apparent “failure”, Basavanna’s ability to build an egalitarian society, especially in the 12th century, is worthy of admiration. Prophets of Virashaiva describes him as, “a mystic by temperament, an idealist by choice, a statesman by profession, a man of letters by taste, a humanist by sympathy and a social reformer by conviction.” Battles against the caste system, sexism, and religious orthodoxy, are still issues that many Hindus must deal with to this day. Gandhi knew that fight, and spoke highly of Basavanna’s commitments in 1924, “Eradication of untouchability and dignity of labour were among his core precepts. One does not find even shades of casteism in him. Had he lived during our times, he would have been a saint worthy of worship.” Though if we wish to truly understand the heart of Basavanna, then we must also read his vacanas.
Basavanna deals eloquently with the struggle of faith, in a way reminiscent of Job. Why should the pious suffer? He pleads to Shiva, but gets no direct answer. We are left to contemplate why.
64
“Siva, you no mercy,
Siva, you no heart.
“Why, why did you bring me to birth,
wretch in this world,
exile from the other?
“Tell me, lord,
don’t you have one more
little tree or plant
made just for me?” (74)
21
“Father in my ignorance you brought me
through mother’s wombs,
through unlikely worlds.
“Was it wrong just to born,
O lord?
“Have mercy on me for being born
once before,
I give you my word,
lord of the meeting rivers,
never to be born again, (68).
There is also an explicit focus on the vanity of the physical in comparison to spiritual gifts. The following poems emphasize that the body is an impermanent object, and that the material world can be quite unsatisfying.
111
“I went to fornicate
but all I got was counterfeit,
“I went behind a ruined wall
but scorpions stung me,
“The watchman who heard my screams
just peeled off my clothes,
“I went home in shame,
my husband raised weals on my back,
“All the rest, O lord of the meeting rivers,
the king took for his fines,” (75).
161
“Before
the grey reaches the cheek
the wrinkle the rounded chin
and the body becomes a cage of bones:
“before
with fallen teeth
and bent back
you are someone else’s ward:
“before
you drop your hand to the knee
and clutch a staff:
“before
age corrodes
your form:
“before
death touches you:
“worship
our lord
of the meeting rivers!” (78).
On the unique and sometimes queer, human body:
125
“See-saw watermills bow their heads.
So what?
Do they get to be devotees
to the Master?
“The tongs join hands.
So what?
Can they be humble in service
to the Lord?
“Parrots recite.
So what?
Can they read the Lord?
“How can the slaves of the Bodiless God,
Desire,
know the way
our Lord’s men move
or the stance of their standing?” (76).
703
“Look here, dear fellow:
I wear these men’s clothes
only for you.
“Sometimes I am man,
sometimes I am woman,
“O lord of the meeting rivers
I’ll make wars for you
but I’ll be your devotee’s bride,” (87).
Finally, the ecstasy of the bosom of Shiva,
847
“When
like a hailstone crystal,
like a waxwork image
the flesh melts in pleasure
how can I tell you?
“The waters of joy
broke the banks
and ran out of my eyes
“I touched and joined
my lord of the meeting rivers
How can I talk to anyone
of that?” (89).
Today, Basavanna lives on, but not only through his poetry. Though his attempts at social reform failed during his lifetime, his philosophy would have an enduring impact on Indian culture and history, as that great Indian sage, Shri Kumarswamiji once wrote:
“The movement initiated by Basava through ‘Anubhava Mantapa’ became the basis of religion of love and faith. It gave rise to a system of ethics and education at once simple and exalted. It inspired ideals of social and religious freedom, such as no previous faith of India had done. In the medieval age which was characterized by inter communal jealousy, it helped to shed a ray of light and faith on the homes and hearts of people. It rendered the Hindu religion all embracing in its sympathy, catholic in its outlook, a perennial fountain of delight and inspiration. The movement gave a literature of considerable value in the vernacular language of the country, the literature which attained the dignity of a classical tongue. It eliminated the barriers of caste and removed untouchability. It raised the untouchable equal to that of the high born. It gave sanctity to the family relations and raised the status of womanhood. It undermined the importance of rites and rituals, of fasts and pilgrimages. It encouraged learning and contemplation on God by means of love and faith. It deplored the excesses of polytheism and developed the plan of monotheism. It tended in many ways to raise the nation generally to a higher level of capacity both in thought and action.”
Devara Dasimayya (Mid 11th Century AD)
Ramanujan says that Devara Dasimayya’s writings would be an influence on Basavanna’s poetry. Dasimayya connected to Shiva through the hero of the Ramayana, so all of his poems are addressed to Ramanatha. Dasimayya did ascetic penance in the forests until Shiva himself came and told him not to punish himself as a recluse. So Dasimayya became a weaver. Dasimayya became very successful in converting people to Shiva, so much so that legends were built about him, that he turned sand into rice, gave a dead boy life, and created lingas from nothing. At the end of his life, he spoke to Ramanatha and said, “I’ve lived my life and done everything by your grace. Now you must return me to yourself.” (91–94).
Dasimayya’s sentiments on gender fludity would later be echoed by Basavanna in his 704th vacana. Ramanujan said of Dasimayya, that, “In his protest against traditional dichotomies, he rejects also the differences between man and woman as superficial,” (26). Dasimayya shows us that the question of gender is not a new one, and that people have been questioning it for years:
133
“If they see
breasts and long hair coming
they call it woman,
“if beard and whiskers
they call it man
“but, look, the self that hovers
in between
is neither man
nor woman
“O Ramanatha,” (110)
144
“Suppose you cut a tall bamboo
in two;
make the bottom piece a woman
the headpiece a man;
rub them together
till they kindle:
tell me now
the fire that’s born,
is it male or female,
“O Ramanatha?” (110).
These radical saints, and their opposition to ritual is also exemplified by Dasimayya, who integrates Shiva into every part of his existence. Ramanujan wrote, “Religions set apart certain times and places as specially sacred: rituals and worship are performed at appointed times, pilgrimages are undertaken to well-known holy places” (26). Dasimayya eschews such beliefs, and implies that Shiva is with him always.
98
“To the utterly at-one with Siva
“there’s no dawn,
no new moon,
no noonday,
nor equinoxes,
nor sunsets,
nor full moons;
“his front yard
is the true Benares,
“O Ramanatha,” (105).
For Dasimayya the spirit is willing and the flesh is weak, but it is also in the flesh that he finds his Shiva:
123
“Bodied,
one will hunger.
“Bodied,
one will lie.
“O you, don’t you rib
and taunt me
again
for having a body:
“body Thyself for once
like me and see
what happens,
“O Ramanatha,” (107).
120
“I’m the one who has the body,
you’re the one who holds the breath.
“You know the secret of my body,
I know the secret of your breath.
“That’s why your body
is in mine,
“You know
and I know, Ramanatha,
“the miracle
“of your breath
in my body,” (106).
Dasimayya not only perceives the reality Shiva through the body, but also through the natural world:
4
“You balanced the globe
on the waters
and kept it from melting away,
“you made the sky stand
without pillar or prop,
“O Ramanatha,
which gods could have
done this?” (97).
45
“The five elements
have become one.
“The sun and the moon,
O Rider of the Bull,
aren’t they really
your body?
“I stand,
look on,
you’re filled
with the worlds.
“What can I hurt now
after this, Ramanatha?” (101).
Mahadeviyakka (Akka Mahadevi) (1130 AD — 1160 AD)
Mahadeviyakka, also called Akka Mahadevi, is the only woman among the poets listed so far. Ramanujan writes that she considered her moment of birth to be her initiation into Shiva worship. She often referred to Shiva as “Lord, white as jasmine,” and even betrothed herself to him, though this didn’t stop suitors from approaching. A king, and further an unbeliever, Kausika, sought her hand. It is not certain if they married, but Ramanujan thinks it to be likely. It does seem clear from her writings, however, that she renounced carnal love, in favor of a spiritual love with her Lord. As proof of this, she cast off all of her clothes, and covered herself in the tresses of her hair. (111–114).
In an effort to get closer to Shiva, she went to a school run by her fellow poets Basavanna and Allama Prabhu. Allama asked her why she replaced her clothes with her hair, and she answered in poem,
“Till the fruit is ripe inside
the skin will not fall off.
I’d a feeling it would hurt you
if I displayed the body’s seals of love.
O brother, don’t tease me
needlessly. I’m given entire
into the hands of my lord
white as jasmine.”
She was accepted, but being a woman in a patriarchal society, she still sought to break free from her bodily limits. According to legend, she died “in oneness with Shiva” in her twenties, (114).
Akka Mahadevi internalized her “Lord, white as jasmine” to the utmost, The Hindu described her outlook in this way:
“As she continued to meditate, Akka’s concept of Chenna Mallikarjuna changed from that of the Puranic Shiva to the formless Divine — the one who pervaded her soul. She saw the Absolute in everything. Every tree was the kalpavriksha, every bush was the Sanjeevani, every place was a teertha, every water body contained Amritha and every pebble was the chintamani gem. Her very breath became His fragrance. His form became hers. Having known Him, there was nothing else to know. She became the bee that drank the nectar of Chenna Mallikarjuna, and dissolved into it. What remained was — ‘Nothing, none whatsoever!’ ”
Some days, Shiva is lost and she must chase after him.
50
“When I didn’t know myself
where were you?
“Like the colour in the gold,
you were in me.
“I saw in you,
lord white as jasmine,
the paradox of your being
in me
without showing a limb,” (119).
75
“You are the forest
“you are all the great trees
in the forest
“you are bird and beast
playing in and out
of all the trees
“O lord white as jasmine
filling and filled by all
“why don’t you
show me your face?” (122).
Being the self-proclaimed wife of Shiva, she constantly yearns for his love. In these writings we see, in part, the challenge of renouncing “carnal knowledge” for “spiritual knowledge”.
79
“Four parts of the day
I grieve for you.
Four parts of the night
I’m mad for you.
“I lie lost
sick for you, night and day,
O lord white as jasmine.
“Since your love
was planted,
I’ve forgotten hunger,
thirst, and sleep,” (124).
319
“What do
the barren know
of birthpangs?
“Stepmothers,
what do they know
of loving care?
“How can the unwounded
know the pain
of the wounded?
“O lord white as jasmine
your love’s blade stabbed
and broken in my flesh,
“I writhe.
O mothers
how can you know me?” (138).
324
“Better than meeting
and mating all the time
is the pleasure of mating once
after being far apart.
“When he’s away
I cannot wait
to get s glimpse of him.
“Friend, when will I have it
both ways,
be with Him
yet not with Him,
my lord white as jasmine?” (140)
Though “spiritual knowledge” of Shiva has its own sensations.
88
“He bartered my heart,
looted my flesh,
claimed as tribute
my pleasure,
took over
all of me.
“I’m the woman of love
for my lord, white as jasmine,” (125).
199
“For hunger,
there is the town’s rice in the begging bowl.
“For thirst,
there are tanks, streams, wells.
“For sleep,
there are the ruins of temples.
“For soul’s company
I have you, O lord
white as jasmine,” (132).
69
“O mother I burned
in a flameless fire
“O mother I suffered
a bloodless wound
“mother I tossed
without a pleasure:
“loving my lord white as jasmine
I wandered through unlikely worlds,” (121).
Allama Prabhu (12th Century AD)
Ramanujan writes that there are various traditions surrounding Allama Prabhu, including one that sees him as Shiva incarnate. Harihara, a fifteenth century poet, wrote one of these many biographies about Allama. In his version, he is a temple-drummer who falls in love with the woman Kamalate. She soon dies in sickness, and he wanders in grief, calling out for his dead wife. In his travels, Allama saw the golden cupola (or kalasa) of a temple cave. He excavated the whole area and found a yogi in trance with a linga (or symbol of Shiva). The yogi, Animisayya, handed him the linga and died the moment he did so. Animisayya also transferred his enlightenment onto Allama, who since ended all of his vacanas by addressing Shiva as “Lord of Caves”. His contemporaries, including Basavanna and Mahadeviyakka, considered him to be a master of the vacanas. This title lives on in his very name, for Basava was given the title Anna, meaning “elder brother”, while Mahadevi was given the title Akka, meaning “elder sister”, but Allama was given the title Prabhu, meaning, “Master.” Allama, like the other four saints, rejected ritual worship, but often questioned the integrity of his fellows. He criticized Basavanna for giving in to the world’s temptations, even while performing good works. He mocked Mahadeviyakka for flaunting her nudity publicly, yet covering her flesh in the tresses of her own hair. It is said that Allama achieved enlightenment through complete self-emptying (143–146).
Well, they call Allama Prabhu “The Master” for a reason. Out of the four poets I have written about, his writing is the most refined. He has a good handle of the vacana style, and uses it to maximum effect. Once you finish reading one of his works, you are left thinking about the unique and strange metaphor it presents. They remind me of Buddhist koans, which expose the limits of language to describe certain aspects of reality. I’m not sure if that was Allama’s intention, but I can sense that he pushed the vacana style as far as he was able.
213
“With a whole temple
in this body
where’s the need
for another?
“No one asked
for two.
109
“O Lord of Caves,
if you are stone,
what am I?” (153)
“If mountains shiver in the cold
with what
will they wrap them?
“If space goes naked
with what
shall they clothe it?
“If the lord’s men become worldlings
where will I find the metaphor,
“O Lord of Caves,” (151).
556
“If it rains fire
you have to be as the water;
“if it is a deluge of water
you have to be as the wind;
“if it is the Great Flood,
you have to be as the sky;
“and if it is the Very Last Flood of all the worlds,
you have to give up self
“and become the Lord,” (162).
775
“A running river
is all legs.
“A burning fire
is mouths all over.
“A blowing breeze
is all hands.
“So, lord of the caves,
for your men,
every limb is Symbol,” (165).
Afterword
In Mere Christianity, C.S. Lewis wrote that the Christian religion wasn’t simply about being a nice person, but about becoming a new man,
“For mere improvement is not redemption, though redemption always improves people even here and now and will, in the end, improve them to a degree we cannot yet imagine. God became man to turn creatures into sons: not simply to produce better men of the old kind but to produce a new kind of man. It is not like teaching a horse to jump better and better but like turning a horse into a winged creature,” (216).
A similar feeling can be felt through the these vacanas, as Ramanujan wrote,
“The vacanas and later Virasavia texts in Kannada and Sanskrit speak of the mystical process as a successsion of stages, a ladder of ascent, a metamorphosis from egg to larva to pupa to the final freedom of winged being,” (169).
What have I learned from these four saints who worshiped Shiva? Perhaps it was upon reading their verses, as vivacious as they were at their first composition, that these words affirmed for me the reality of “spirituality”, if I may use the term. Not so much the spirituality of the transcendent, that higher beings like Shiva exist, but more so the internal spirituality of the human soul. What these four felt, I think, was real. We all feel it. For most people, our sense of spirituality is provoked by an image of the cosmos from the Hubble Telescope. For these poets, it came from Shiva, but they all saw him differently: The lord of meeting rivers, the lord of the Ramayana, the lord white as jasmine, and the lord of the cave.
We need not adopt all of their practices, or even their god. Rather, we should respect that these four found a certain mental clarity from their meditations. And from this clarity they were able to redefine their own realities. Such is the nature of poetry itself. To change the way we see the world’s ordinary processes. To provoke thought and feeling with each observation. To view life as a new human being.
Bibliography
Basavanna, Devara Desimayya, Mahadeviyakka, Allama Prabhu; ed. A.K. Ramanujan. Speaking Of Siva. Penguin Books: Baltimore, Maryland, 1973. 19–20, 25–27, 37, 61–64, 67–94, 97–114, 116–140, 143–145, 149–169. Print.
Kumarswamiji, H.H. Mahatapasvi Shiri. “Basava — The Great Socio-Religious Reformer.” Prophets of Virashaivism. Veerashaiva, 2015. Web. http://www.virashaiva.com/basava-the-great-socio-religious-reformer/
Lewis, C.S. Mere Christianity. Harper Collins: San Francisco, 1952. 216. Print.
Ramadevi, B. “Akka Mahadevi: Shiva in her soul.” The Hindu, February 24, 2014. Web. http://www.thehindu.com/features/metroplus/akka-mahadevi-shiva-in-her-soul/article5722583.ece
Sing, Yadu. “800 years later, Basava philosophy still relevant.” The Indian Sun. Web. http://www.theindiansun.com.au/800-years-later-basava-philosophy-remains-relevant/
Originally published at http://sansuthecat.blogspot.com on April 14, 2014.
