Mahadevi
Many
of the poet‑saints were women, who, even more than men, risked the
censure of society by their unconventional lives. Like Basavanna, Mahadevi
lived in Karnataka in the twelfth century, and, according to the legends,
although she was married to the king, she gave all her love to Shiva, not to
her husband. She refers in her poems to Shiva as "The Lord White as
Jasmine," and, as in the secular love poetry of chapter 10, the imagery is
of love in separation and love in union.
[From
Mahideviyakka, trans. by Ramanujan in Speaking of Siva, pp. 134, 141]
I
love the Handsome One:
he
has no death
decay
nor form
no
place or side
no
end nor birthmarks.
I
love him, O mother. Listen
I
love the Beautiful One
with
no bond nor fear
no
clan no land
no
landmarks
for
his beauty.
So
my lord, white as jasmine, is my husband.
Take
these husbands who die,
decay,
and feed them
to
your kitchen fires!
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 a glimpse of him.
Friend,
when will I have it
both
ways,
be
with Him
yet not with Him,
my lord white as jasmine?
Lalla
LaIla,
who lived in the fourteenth century in Kashmir, was another famous woman
devotee of Shiva who, like Mahadevi, defied all social conventions in her
search her beloved.
[From
LaIla, Lallavakyani]
I,
Lalla, went out far in search of Shiva, the omnipresent Lord; after wandering,
I, Lalla, found Him at last within my own self, abiding in His own home.
Temple and image, the two that you have fashioned,
are no better than stone; the Lord is immeasurable and consists of
intelligence; what is needed to realize Him is unified concentration of breath
and mind.
Let them blame me or praise me or adore me with
flowers; I become neither joyous nor depressed, resting in myself and drunk in
the nectar of the knowledge of the pure Lord.
With the help of the gardeners called Mind and Love,
plucking the flower called Steady Contemplation, offering the water of the
flood of the Self's own bliss, worship the Lord with sacred formula of silence!