Poetry Chaikhana Sacred Poetry from Around the World

Yoga / Hindu : Shaivite (Shiva) 12th Century	About Akka Mahadevi Timeline (12th Century)
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English version by A. K. Ramanujan Original Language Kannada	You are the forest
Commentary by Ivan M. Granger Themes   Birds   Bower   Tree       Recommended Books Sacred Voices: Essential Women's Voices Through the Ages, Edited by Mary Ford-Grabowsky The Shambhala Anthology of Women's Spiritual Poetry, Edited by Aliki Barnstone Speaking of Siva, by A K Ramanujan Women Writing in India: 600 BC to the Present: Volume 1, Edited by Susie Tharu / Edited by K. Lalita	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?     -- from Speaking of Siva, by A K Ramanujan Amazon.com
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Commentary by Ivan M. Granger

I really like the image of God (in this case, Shiva) as a forest, as every tree in the forest, and simultaneously as the myriad of animals "playing in and out / of all the trees".

Contemplate this image for a moment.

First, God is the forest -- the place, the region. You might call this the field of being.

But then God is also seen as "all the great trees" -- the green and living pillars that collectively embody that field of being. This is like stepping in awareness from the unmanifest to the manifest.

And then we have this living, moving, "playing" circulation of beings -- "bird and beast" -- that constantly flows "in and out" of the trees. Akka Mahadevi is evoking an image of individual points of consciousness playfully, naturally moving between the unmanifest and the manifest, between the interior and the exterior. And God is also every one of those points of awareness, circling relatively in and out of manifestation.

An image of God as all life and all things. Not merely being all things, but at the same time permeating and flowing through all things... "filling and filled by all."

It inspires the mystic's plea: "why don't you / show me your face?" This vision of unified being within such swirling multiplicity awakens the fundamental hunger to witness the Singularity -- for that is our true Beloved and our true home!

Ivan M. Granger's original poetry, stories and commentaries are Copyright © 2002 - 2008 by Ivan M. Granger.
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