May 24 2017
Basava – The Temple and the Body
The Temple and the Body
by Basava
English version by A. K. Ramanujan
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.
— from Speaking of Siva, by A K Ramanujan
/ Image by wharman /
The wealthy prove their piety by financing temples (or churches or mosques…). Their devotion is concretized in stone and gold. It’s easy for a poor man, witnessing the splendor of a wealthy shrine, to imagine himself far behind on the road to heaven. What can he offer to compete with that? What temple can he build to offer proper worship?
Basava gives us the solution offered by saints everywhere: Make of yourself a temple.
My legs are pillars,
the body the shrine,
the head a cupola
of gold.
This is where all true meditation, prayer, communion occurs. The built temple is but a reflection of the temple of the self. And that true temple is available to all, rich and poor, equally.
Basava carries it further, pointing out how far superior the inner temple is. “Things standing,” structures built of wood or stone, no matter how lovely or inspiring, are destined to fall. A temple of stone stands but does not move. It lacks the life necessary to continually adjust itself to the shifting forces of time and gravity and the flow of nature all around; it is already crumbling.
…but the moving ever shall stay.
That which is animated, the temple of the embodied self, has life! It dances with the flow of existence… and that life continues. Worship that takes place within that living temple lives as well, and lasts.
Basava’s reminder to us: Regardless of whether we worship beneath a golden cupola or beneath the arch of the open sky, only meditation and prayer and communion that takes place within the living temple of the self matters, because that is what lives and lasts. Wherever you are, whatever your role in life, make of yourself a holy temple. More important than monuments of stone are monumental living souls.
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| Speaking of Siva | The Yoga Tradition: Its History, Literature, Philosophy and Practice | |||
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Basava
India (1134 – 1196) Timeline |
Basava, sometimes referred to reverently as Basavanna or Basaveshwara, was a twelfth century devotee of Shiva and early organizer of the Virasaiva Lingayata sect in the Kannada-speaking regions of southern India.
The Virasaivas were a Shiva bhakti movement that rejected the elaborate ritualism and strict caste system of orthodox Hinduism which favored the wealthy, and instead emphasized direct mystical experience available to all through deep devotion to God. In this sense, the Virasaiva movement was a mystical protestant movement that also asserted social equality and justice for the poor. As Lingayatas they worship Shiva in the form of a linga, the stone symbol that represents God as creative generator of the universe or, more deeply, as a representation of the Formless taking form.
Basava was orphaned at a young age but adopted by a wealthy family with political connections. He received a good education but rejected a life of comfort and prestige to become a wandering ascetic dedicated to Shiva.
He received enlightenment at a sacred meeting of rivers. This is why all of Basava’s poems include a reference to Shiva as “the lord of the meeting rivers.” This also has a deeper, esoteric meaning relating to the subtle energies awakened in the yogi’s awareness.
However, he soon was given a divine command to return to worldly life. Basava initially resisted, but eventually yielded and returned to his adopted family. Before long he attained high political office while, simultaneously, forming the new populist mystical movement of Virasaivas into a coherent, egalitarian community. This community fostered many other great poet-saints, including Akka Mahadevi and Allama Prabhu.
This utopian community began to be seen as a threat to the orthodox religious and political forces, however, and they used the marriage between an outcaste man and a brahmin woman within the community as an excuse to kill several of its members. Basava urged a non-violent response, but the reflex for revenge was too strong among some of the community’s members. In the tense aftermath, the community couldn’t safely hold together and its members went in different directions.
Basava once again left politics and returned to his focus on the inner spiritual life.
Ivan, thank you for such a nice, well-informed commentary. Thank you too for your words about the bombing. Any attack is reprehensible, but an attack on children is unspeakable.
The (obviously posthumously painted) picture of Basava is funny. It seems if you are a man in India you are obligated to have a moustache. Unless you are Punjabi and therefore are obligated to have a five o’clock shadow! LOL!
I have been to the sacred spot of the ‘Lord of the Meeting Rivers’ while shooting a documentary on river Krishna. It is so ironic that now there is an under water temple with an access through a vertical tunnel with a spiral staircase which takes you down to the river base where there is a Shivalinga to be worshipped! So much of elaborate fanfare to create the temple in memory of someone who proclaimed ” My legs are pillars…” and ” The moving ever shall stay ” !
thank you for a wonderul poem. As always I enjoyed your commentary. As well, your thought for the day.
I have read some truly great translations of everything from Nietzsche to Dostoyvesky to the rather excellent in my opinion King James rendering of the Greek the Gospels were composed of (“Oh yee generation of vipers, how hath warned you to flee from the wraith to come?” really just has a really nice ring to it) but so far, nothing quite compares to the translations of the creation hymn of the Rig Veda and the last stanza in terms of a deep and profound conveyance of truly eternal truths across time and space. I first found this truly incredible line of verse while at a book store in Berkeley, California discussing with a friend the Lord Shiva who at that point was making Himself known to me in full force and I was describing how this process was unfolding to her as we browsed the bookstore. Since this process of obtaining a distinct darshana of the Lord first began many years ago, I have perpetually been somewhat irritated that while I may easily find ream upon ream of babbling nonsense about Buddhism in American bookstores, the Hinduism sections are always suspiciously scant (this was before I knew about z-lib ;]). In grumbling about this topic I just so happened to say, “Speaking of Shiva,” as I rounded a corner and saw sitting at my direct eye level a book called precisely that phrase. I took this as a sign and bought the book, It wasn’t for at least a year before I first read that stanza on the back of this collection of Varishaiva poems I had purchased first reached out and snagged my attention, probably as I was still missing an awareness of the Shakti who in the interim made Herself known to me in a set of circumstances I a still scratching my head about but which has left me unwilling to attempt to resist the spiritual realities I need not have faith in any more due to Her Graceful Intervention I can neither deny nor pretend a coincidence.
When the stanza finally pierced the thick clouds of egoism and maya that enveloped my brain, it struck deeply into me, flowing through me as lightning flows through the unfortunate caught outside in a storm. Here is religious poetry of a rather specific sect of the Sanatana Dharma anticipating Newton’s formulae centuries before his birth, just as Newton’s bodies stay in motion so too does Basavana’s flowing waters that so neatly pairs to his title for the Lord as Lord of the Meeting Rivers. Just as Saul had scales struck from his eyes, so too did I see as if for the first time the extremity of wisdom that had developed in the religious traditions of India that other than the aforementioned nihilism-in-saffron-robes is something so little understood and subject to little interest in the West at a time when such aphorisms would bring much comfort to many in states of spiritual longing I knew not that I had been in until the wisdom of rishis of all variant sects and persuasions came thundering into my life just as a hurricane comes slamming into the Gulf Coast in the fall (oh Merciful Rudra of Rudras how I needed the rain!).
What’s especially powerful about many of the quotes I have been gathering into what is becoming a sizeable collection is that in translation from Indian languages themselves radically different from English is how still the quotes resonates with the deep intonation of truth and profundity. While I do understand that the truth cannot be suppressed, that those seeking it will find it and that there are many paths that lead to the Divine just as many rivers meet at the ocean, it is a truly awe inspiring and interesting quirk of how it all plays out that so many of these quotes are so perfectly translated and this one especially has an especially wonderful levity about it that I wish for as many people to hear of it for such an illumination should not be greedily stored away but used to brighten up the world in these ever darker days.
May your ancestors smile down upon you all and may the Lord Shiva be pleased when gazing upon you from His Seat upon Mount Kailash. Happy Shivaratri!