Of all the saints, Prabhudeva stands out as the outstanding mystic of that epoch. His contemporary saints looked up to him with respect and reverence for spiritual guidance, enlightenment, philosophical explanations and mystical matters. Just as Socrates is the central figure of Plato's dialogues, so Prabhu is a pivotal force, nay the Shining Sun of Righteousness, around who rotate the rest of the planets (Sharanas) of the Shunya-Sampadane. This is why it is, in fact, correct to say that the Shunya-Sampadanedeserves to be called Prabhu's Dialogues.
ALLAMA PRABHU II
Allama Prabhu left his native village of Balligavi in the present Shimoga district and came, still young, to Animishayyana Koppa, where he received his initiation and, with it, his Ishta-Linga from Animishayya in a strange and unprecedented manner. He then went to Masali or Mosalekal, in Bijapur district and, setting the great mystic Muktayakka on the Path, proceeded to Sonnalige (present Sholapur), where after a long spiritual discussion, he persuaded the great Shivayogi Siddharamayya to accompany him to Kalyana. He thought that here, through Basavanna, Siddharama's yoga would be completed. Once in Kalyana, Siddharama was initiated in Ishta-Linga lore by Chennabasavanna, while Prabhudeva, through his final instructions, perfected his yoga.
After a long association with the sharanas – Basavanna, Chennabasavanna, Siddharamayya, Madivala Macayya and others – Prabudeva makes his departure from Kalyana. The Jangama, the moving Linga, must keep moving: there is still work to do elsewhere. We gather that from Kalyana he went to Ponnambala to Rameshvara and from there to Gokarna, all in South India. From here he travels to Sourastra Someshvara and, visiting holy centres in different parts of northern India, goes up to Kedara in the Himalayas, wandering on among the mountains known as Savalakshaparvata. At this northernmost part of India, Prabhudeva, we are told, finding a large cave, decided to enter the Real trance.
This was no common tour. Prabhudeva has no interest in travel for its own sake but only to sanctify the land. He had made the whole world his own. Wherever Prabhudeva goes, the darkness of the mind, the heart's unease, the soul's predicament are dispelled. The passions that impede spiritual progress are quelled. On he goes, sowing the seeds of devotion, knowledge and good deeds everywhere. For hearts ready to receive it, he radiates the Divine Light. The holy places and waters become the holier for his presence. We are reminded of Prabhudeva's own words:
Incomparable is the beauty of Your going:
It alchemises all that is touched;
It consecrates all that is seen;
It turns all that is heard
Into spiritual discourse.
They're forthwith saved who hold
Converse with You!
You purify the world as You pass by;
Each spot You tread is a pilgrim place;
The waters You touch are holy waters;
And all those who pledge
Devotion to You
Become one with You
O Guheshwara.
Prabhudeva leaves no footprints where he walks; he casts no shadow where he stands. Motionless, he moves; his speech is Silence speaking. Chennabasavanna gives explanation of this ethereal, glorified existence:
Because he never stepped
Upon the foulness of the world,
They say Prabhudeva has no legs.
Because he never took another's wealth,
They say Prabhudeva has no hands.
Because he never heard
Aught else,
They say Prabhudeva has no ears.
Because he never leaned
Towards an evil-smelling act,
They say Prabhudeva has no nose.
Because he never clasped another's woman,
They say Prabhudeva has no heart.
Therefore before Kudala Chennasanga I say:
Receiving the left offerings
Of Prabudeva, I shall be blest.
Mark that, Sangama Basavanna.
In other words, he is and he is not. It is like the sun's image in the water, unaffected by the nature of the water.
There are as many as eleven vachanas in which Prabhudeva describes his trance or his supreme Shivayoga. Siddhaviranna tells us how Prabhudeva takes a particular posture ready to enter into the Trance:
''... sat in it, in answer to a whim, in the lotus pose; and remaining in that will-less condition, in a state of consubstantial union, with reason, mind, breath, knowledge and thought concentrated on one point and in equipoise, he realised the Void of voids and was transfixed in the ultimate trance''.
What this trance means is also explained by him: ''... He stood still in union with Parashiva and became integral with Him, had clasped all the infinite billions of cosmic eggs in the Light of his great illumination and was shining in all splendour...'' – a state described in greater detail by Prabhudeva himself in one of his vachanas.
As in the Upanishadic saying, ''One who knows Brahman becomes the Brahman (brahma veda brahmaiva bhavati), so Prabhudeva is the supreme Light and the Void. The potential Divine has now been transformed into the actual Divine; for the Divine Existence is only consciousness kindled by the Divine Light.
As far as can be gathered from Prabhudeva's relevant vachanas – enigmatic in their utterance of what cannot be uttered – this ultimate Experience is:
(1) A glorious transformation (V.20)
(2) Self-realisation (V.20)
(3) A complete union (V.18)
(4) An utter dissolution (V.24)
(5) An infinite expansion (V.21)
(6) The supreme beatitude (V.19)
(7) An absolute transcendence (V.15)
Meanwhile, the sharanas at Kalyana, pining for Prabhudeva and knowing intuitively that he would come back to them as he had promised, make arrangements for the construction of a Shunyasimhasana (the Throne of the Absolute). Here is one aspect of the Shunyasimhasana as described by Hadapada Appanna in his vachana No. 27:
Abolishing in Linga the body's character,
Abolishing in Consciousness the flaws of mind,
Abolishing the illusions of the soul
With a mind exempt from care,
Laying the foundation-stone of virtuous life
For the abode of the immaculate Absolute,
Placing a mosaic stone
Made of the wealth of all discipline,
Setting up four pillars of
The fourfold inner self,
Adjusting a tower of knowledge on
A wall called Knower, and decking it
With a gold spire called the Known,
Making the upper door of Brahmarandhra
Into a real door
And setting it up in Spacelessness,
Basavanna prepared
A throne of the Absolute against
The arrival of Prabhudeva,
Basavapriya Kudala Chennasanga's sharana,
And eagerly awaited his coming.
The Shunyasimhasana is an outward expression of Basavanna's inner realisation of the Absolute. The structure and the materials used are clearly symbolic of the processes through which Basavanna attained to the realisation of the Absolute. The Throne of the Absolute represents man's unique conquest of his own innermost kingdom – the Kingdom of God.
In response to Basavanna's heart's call, as also to that of all the other sharanas, Prabhudeva returns to Kalyana twelve years later, but in a disguised form – a form to all outward appearance uncomely and odd, ugly and deformed.
To add to this awful sight, his behaviour is extremely odd and baffling. Prabhudeva's intention was to test whether Basavanna would be able to recognise his identity. Basavanna had his own plan for identifying Prabhudeva. A true bhakta or a sharana should be able to penetrate the form and see the Divine shining behind.
Note:
Some attempts have been made in recent times to publish the original Shunyasampadane in Kannada; but for the benefit of non-Kannada readers, a
comprehensive edition with an English translation of each vachana and an introduction in English was felt to be necessary. This suggestion was,
in fact, made by Shri Kumarswamiji of Navakalyanamath of Dharwar. He also offered to help translate these vachanas into English and to write a
general introduction to the work. At that time, he was Honorary Professor of Veerashaiva Philosophy at the University; but owing to pressure of
other commitments he had to give up the teaching work in the University and also that of editing Shunyasampadane as he originally desired to do.
So an independent committee consisting of Dr. S.C. Nandimath, Prof. Armando Menezes and Dr. R. C. Hiremath was formed. This committee has now
completed the first volume of the work, consisting of the first three chapters of the Shunyasampadane. The remaining chapters will be published
in about five further volumes in the course of the next year or so.
Karnatak University
Dharwar, July 15, 1965
This article 'Shunya Sampadane - Sampadane of Prabhudeva's Tour' is taken from SHUNYASAMPADANE, Volume V, 1972, KARNATAK UNIVERSITY, DHARWAD.
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