Poetry Chaikhana Blog

To the utterly at-one with Siva
by Devara Dasimayya

English version by A. K. Ramanujan

To the utterly at-one with Siva
there’s no dawn,
no new moon,
no noonday,
nor equinoxes,
nor sunsets,
nor full moons;

O Ramanatha.

— from Speaking of Siva, by A K Ramanujan

/ Image by whologwhy /

To the utterly at-one with Siva…

That line stops me in my tracks each time I read it. Do you have the same reaction?

there’s no dawn,
no new moon,
no noonday…

Time and the phenomenal experiences that move through time are seen as glimmerings on the surface of the immense, still sea of the Eternal. Days and seasons, action and reaction exist only for the unsettled ego-self. For the true Self, which is “utterly at-one with Siva,” there is only Siva, there is only the Eternal. Dawn and sunset, new moon and full moon, time and motion, all of these are simply Siva’s ornaments fluctuating in timelessness.

This is another way of saying there is no separation in Reality. The new moon pours into the full moon, the glow of dawn naturally builds to noon’s blaze and fills the sunset with its sleepy glory. They are not separate objects or events, but a single continuity witnessed from different perspectives. They are one. They are shifting glimmerings upon the surface of the Eternal.

Truly realizing this, we recognize that wherever we are is the holiest place in the universe: right here, right now. There is no fundamental difference or distance between the ground under our feet and the most sacred pilgrimage spot. They are the same, part of the same continuity of existence. Your “front yard / is the true Benares.”

===

Ask yourself:
Are you one who seeks
or one who finds?

A few days ago I pulled a copy of my book Gathering Silence from the bookshelf and I have begun reading it again.

Regardless of belief,
everyone is agnostic
until gnosis.

Maybe saying I have been reading it is not the right description, since it isn’t a book meant to be read page after page front to back. Rather, I have been finding quiet moments to open to a random page and then reading the sayings that come up.

Love and compassion are effortless.
The soul is exhausted by its effort
to stop the natural outpouring
of the living heart.

While The Longing in Between, with it’s collection of poems and commentaries and personal stories, has always been my best selling book, Gathering Silence, with its short poetic statements and lovely collages by Rashani Réa, is among the more overlooked of my publications. Yet, for me, this is one of my strongest works. It sings to me somehow.

Enough deals and half-measures!
Hand everything over
to that divine ember
burning in your chest!

Each time I leaf through its pages, I have the strange experience of not always recognizing the author.

How can you settle into yourself
without
self-acceptance?

I regularly find myself thrown into deep contemplation by the words I find within its pages and wonder who wrote them.

What the heart recognizes
as liberation,
the ego sees
as theft.

I like to think Gathering Silence finds its audience in its own time.

We don’t take the final step.
It takes us.

Have a beautiful day!

Recommended Books: Devara Dasimayya

Speaking of Siva

Devara Dasimayya was one of the earliest of the Virasaiva poet-saints, a forerunner of later beloved figures like Basava and Akka Mahadevi.

Dasimayya addressed his poems to Ramanatha, or “Rama’s lord,” a reference to Shiva as worshipped by the divine hero-king Rama.

Tradition says that Dasimayya was performing intense ascetic practices in a jungle when Shiva appeared to him and told him to stop punishing his body. Shiva urged him instead to work in the world. Dasimayya renounced his extreme practices and took up the trade of a weaver.

Like most Virasaivas who followed him, this gentle saint taught a life of complete non-violence, even encouraging local hunting tribes to renounce meat and, instead, provide for themselves through pressing and selling olive oil.

Dasimayya became a famous teacher, eventually giving initiation to the wife of the local king, who was a Jain. Dasimayya engaged in several debates with the powerful Jain community and, through a series of miraculous events, managed to convert large numbers to the worship of his vision of Shiva as the eternal God.

More poetry by Devara Dasimayya

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