Communion and converse with sharanas seems to be the summum bonum of Basavanna's life. As sharanas are flocking from every nook and corner of India, Basavanna feels highly elated. His joy reaches its climax when he finds Prabhudeva, the Great Jangama, in the assembly of sharanas. His only prayer to Kudala Sangama is:
O Kudala Sangama Lord,
Pray, make me be,
Inseparably and unaware,
Within that Council where
Your great saint congregate.
But what is the reason for Basavanna's yearning always to live in the company of the sharanas? He makes himself very clear on this point. His body, mind, all he has, his entire being, have been cleansed and purified. They have become a fit receptacle for the Divine. He gives vent to his thrilling experience:
I have become as one who hugs
A statue made of hail.
Prabhudeva fully appreciates Basavanna's reverence for the sharanas and his longing for their company. But he seems to lead him further into the field of Shivadvaita Bhakti, where knowledge and devotion are perfectly harmonised. It is difficult, he remarks at the outset, to conquer Maya, even for gods if they are born in this world wearing the body. And Karma pursues those who think of achieving happiness by meditation with their mind's darkness dispelled. Forgetfulness plagues those who try to meditate. Basavanna seems not to agree with Prabhudeva. Is there anything which is not attainable by meditation? Does not Maya waver and depart before the potency of meditation? To illustrate the point Basavanna says:
Strong is the elephant: but could you say
Less strong the goad?
Nay, nay, not so!
Strong is the mountain: but could you say
The thunderbolt less strong?
Nay, nay, not so!
Strong is the darkness: but could you say
Less strong is the light?
Nay, nay, not so!
Oblivion is strong: but could you say
The heart that loves you less strong?
O Kudala Sangama,
You only know
The greatness of your Grace!
But Prabhudeva's objection is that Maya can never be dispelled by meditation. It is only Divine Grace that can work this wonder. Meditation and such other methods by themselves can never reveal the Divine Reality. The mystery of Guheshvara Linga has dodged the eyes of the world by clouding them with ignorance, an offshoot of Maya. If you want to meditate upon Him, incomprehensible is He to the mind. If you want to know Him, not knowable is He because He is formless. Would you wish to see Him, He is beyond your ken. How can you grasp the Absolute which is beyond the range either of the body or of the mind? How can you lodge him in your heart with the help of meditation? Prabhudeva asks: ''In what manner have you harboured in your heart the Thing beyond speech and thought?''
Basavanna rises to the occasion. His self-confidence seems to be mightier than the Almighty's. He submits:
O Kudala Sangama Lord,
Thy Maya encompasses the world;
But, look, my mind
Is able to encompass Thee!
Thou'rt mightier than the world;
But, look I'm mightier than Thou!
Even as an elephant is
Held in a mirror, so Thou
In me!
Again Prabhudeva puts forth his objection. If it be a fact that the Divine is seated in the shrine of your heart, could the spirit dive deep to the unsounded depths for doing its worship? If it be, again, a fact that He is outside your body, can your outward actions reach up to Him? How can you see the Utter Void which transcends both the mind and its meditation, the body and its outer acts? This Void is the Sthala – to be more precise the Nihsthala – where the sense of being is utterly lost. Is there any method, meditation or any other, which can help know the Void and become one with It?
Basavanna senses the force of Prabhudeva's argument. To an extent he changes his standpoint. He admits that his inner and outer being is ''His''. It is the Guru who has swept away the difference between body and mind. They are one, and they are ''His''. The heart which comprehends the inner and the outer is ''His''. It is ''He'' who is lodged therein:
In Thine own heart I lodge Thyself:
By being Thee, I worship Thee
Within Thine outwardness;
Through Thine own understanding, understand.
Here it is quite apparent that Basavanna is almost striking the keynote of Advaita Bhakti, commonly known as Shivabhakti. Prabhudeva again raises an objection. The body is born of union and breeds ignorance. Out of ignorance arises the sense of ''I'' and ''you'', that is the sense of duality. To say that you have known Him by yourself without this sense of duality, the ''inner me'' and the ''outer you'', is a contradiction of thought. There is no end to this knowing. The process of knowledge, according to Prabhudeva, is futile as a means of realising the Ultimate Reality. He remarks elsewhere that those who seek to realise the Ultimate by the method of intellectual understanding are caught in the web of knowledge. In the above argument he seems to suggest that one can know God in the measure that one is ''He''. There is a clear hint that being and knowing are not different from one another. Being is knowing and knowing is being. They are one and identical.
Basavanna's submission is that the consciousness which embraces both knowledge and ignorance and transcends them is never different from the self which has sought and found it. Knowledge and even ignorance rise from the One Consciousness which knows no duality, such as ''I'' and ''you'', ''All this'' and ''me''. Basavanna clearly hints at the realisation of Brahma through knowledge by identity. With this line of Basavanna's thinking Prabhudeva seems to agree to a great extent. But then, argues Prabhu, there is a sense of duality in you in the form of Deva and Bhakta. Linga and Anga, knowledge and word. How can you say that you have attained consubstantial union with the Supreme Reality?
Basavanna's submission is simple and seems to be final. He reveals his innermost experience:
Greater even than the Great, O Lord,
Did I abide
In the greatest of the great,
The boundless and profound!
How shall I say, O Lord,
How I became a light within
The light of Kudala Sangama, till
My utterance was in silence bound?
Prabhudeva is completely satisfied with this experience of Basavanna's, which, in the terminology of Virashaivism, is Linganga Samarasya (Linga=Universal Soul, anga=the individual soul, samarasya = union). Prabhudeva sees in Basavanna his Teacher, Animisha, from whom he received the primordial Linga. He also sees in him Vrsabha, Nilalohita and Skanda. This seems to be the hierarchy of Prabhudeva's spiritual teachers. He exclaims:
Look you, Guheshvara,
To-day I've seen
The one who has seen
Both you and me.
It is worth noticing that Prabhudeva is not only a great teacher but a great learner too. How many things of spiritual significance he has received from Basavanna! And how frankly he acknowledges his gains! He is overwhelmed, and expresses his gratitude:
Through you, Basava, Guru became
Part of myself.
Through you, Basava, Linga became
Part of myself.
Through you, Basava, Jangama became
Part of myself.
Through you, Basava, Prasada became
Paart of myself.
And since you made me gain
These fourfold principles,
You have become, O Sangana Basavanna,
Our Guheshvaralinga's joy.
But, as we are aware, it is never the way of Basavanna to accept such compliments. Prabhudeva goes on with his glorification of Basavanna. He it is that revealed the principles of Guru, Linga, Jangama and Prasada as different manifestations of one and the same principles, making them as clear as a myrobalan on the palm:
O Basava, first practicant,
Devotion's treasury,
Now that Guheshvaralinga
Has been by you revealed to me,
All the worlds upon worlds
Have dwindled to a dot!
But Basavanna knows what is what. What is that Force which flows as knowledge in the inner self, as discipline in the outward actitivies, and as meditation in the mind? Who is that Inner Guide that led him to higher and higher planes of Gurusthala, Lingasthala, Jangamasthala and Prasadisthala? Who else but Prabhudeva has shown him the way to Pranalinga? But Prabhudeva does not accept this tribute of Basavanna's. On the contrary, he maintains that it is through Basavanna's grace that he has come to know that Prana is Linga. ''I am only an infant born out of your Grace,'' exclaims Prabhudeva with joyful pride.
Now Basavanna puts forth his deep conviction that Bhakta is of time whereas Jangama is timeless; Shakti is of time and the principle of Shiva is timeless. ''It is only when you showed it to me supporting my time-born Pinda (individual soul) that I saw you in the lotus of your heart. The knowledge that sees or knows is Jangama. Without Jangama, neither Linga nor Guru nor Prasada could be seen. You are my life. To be sure, the body is Bhakta and the Life is Jangama.'' With this submission Basavanna requests Prabhudeva not to extol him. But Prabhudeva cannot see much soundness in his pleading. Who comes first, the Bhakta or the Jangama? he asks. Can Jangama exist without the Bhakta? Just as life cannot exist without the support of the body, so the Jangama cannot exist unless he is supported by the Bhakta. Prabhudeva traces the Bhakta, or the principle of Bhakti, to timeless eternity. The Formless Absolute would have resolved into the Void were it not supported by the Chit-Shakti. This Shakti is none other than the Bhakti whose bodily representative is Basavanna. The Void supported by the Conscious Energy assumed the name of Para Brahma. Here, according to Prabhudeva, Basavanna represents this eternal Conscious Energy. And then Para Brahma assumed the form of Shiva being supported by Dharma – the ''Eternal Law'' which is the same as Conscious Energy. This Dharma, according to Virashaivism, is Basavanna himself. Shiva is the maker of the world; but he does what he does on the strength of this ''Eternal Law''. Similarly, proceeds Prabhudeva, the Linga or the Jangama or the Prasada could not exist without the support of the principle of Bhakti which is identical with Dharma or Basavanna. All these, even himself, are what they are because of Basavanna. Hence Prabhudeva exclaims:
Our Guheshvara knows
That I am what I am because
You made me; that's so,
Sangana Basavanna!
And thus he establishes the truth of a far-reaching metaphysical significance, that Bhakta is timeless and Jangama is of time.
Basavanna, however, cannot be silenced by such arguments. What is Jangama if not the form of knowledge, and what is Bhakta, if not the form of discipline? Can discipline, or Achara, show its head before the dawn of knowledge? It is knowledge that is the womb of discipline, experience and Prasada, and so forth. Basavanna submits he is what he is, and does what he does because of Knowledge – the Jangama. He firmly maintains:
From out of knowledge, Practice comes;
From out of knowledge, is Experience;
From out of knowledge, Prasada comes.
Prabhudeva is highly satisfied with Basavanna's great idea and living experience of what is known as ''Enlightened Faith''. He has a deep look into Basavanna and discerns:
The body is Service; all the limbs
Are practice; mind, breath and life, all
Are images of Knowledge, see!
What use is Knowledge if Bhakti is not its integral part? And if there is no Bhakti, what is called Practice is a distant dream. To this Basavanna further submits: ''How can there be devotion if I do not see and adore you? How can there be practice without your touch? How can there be knowledge unless I called up your glory and held it in my mind? It is your direct and immediate presence that has made me righteous. Lord, you have come to make me in all manner of ways.'' At this point Prabhudeva cannot contain himself and breaks into a song celestial:
Basavanna, at sight and sight of you
My body has become as nought!
Basavanna, at touch and touch of you
My actions have become as nought!
Basavanna, remembering and remembering you
My mind is all become as nought!
Basavanna, on hearing often times
About your Great Experience,
My wheel of births has ceased!
If I am saved in your society
It's because
You tore life's fastenings and proved
You were, indeed, an Unborn One
In Guheshvaralinga!
Prabhudeva goes on singing. He says, ''O Basava, though I have known your greatness for successive ages, I have not known your glory in this incarnation when you have mastered the discipline.'' He further remarks:
I know, because I've seen
Breaking the secret of the lock:
How you became
Ganeshvara, Basavanna by name,
In Kaliyuga;
How with practice of all kind enriched,
You brought to light
Devotion and Knowledge;
How fostered the growth
Of the mighty Shiva cult;
How held aloft
The flag of Shiva-devotion, and
Diffused it through the mortal world.
Let Guheshvara bear witness,
I have been saying, Hail, O hail!
Unto your majesty:
That's true, Sangana Basavanna.
What lesson can we draw from the high discourse between these two great men such as the world can produce but once in a few hundreds or thousands of years? Love without knowledge is no love, and knowledge without love is no knowledge. Divine Love is kindled by Divine Knowledge, Divine Knowledge is actualised in Love Divine.
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 Basaveshvar' is taken from SHUNYASAMPADANE, Volume II, 1965, KARNATAK UNIVERSITY, DHARWAD.
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