Great Devotees of Lord Siva 67A

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Om Namah Sivaya Allama Prabhu Prabhu, who is otherwise known as Allama, Allayya, Allama Prabhu or Prabhu-deveru, was probably born in the very beginning of the 12th century. The exact date of his birth is neither known nor has it been ascertained by any of his biographers. The

biographers can be divided into two groups: one holding all too human and the other all too divine view of him. Both views are wrong, for both lack the historical perspective and predominantly represent a mythological view. Yet out of this legendary outlook we can glean a few historical facts. Prabhu was undoubtedly born of the human parents at Ballegavi, a village near Banavasi. His father's name was Nirahankara, and his mother's, Sujnani. Karavura seems to be his family name. Ballegavi was set in the midst of palm trees, water-pools and rice fields. The temple of Goggeleshwara or Guheshwara adorned this inspiring setting. His parents were a devout couple and Goggeshwara was their family deity. Sujnani had often visitations from God, Goggeshwara in her dreams. Nirahankara was the head of a dance school and was well versed in the three branches of music. But a secret longing was gnawing at their hearts. It

was the longing for a child. In her daily prayers, Sujnani appealed to God to bless her with a child. One day she dreamt that she had been possessed by the God. In the temple opposite her house the image of Siva quickened to life under her own eyes. A ray of light penetrated to the depth of her being. In course of time, she conceived and gave birth to a child. The child, whom the world was to know as the Vairagya Chakravarti, (the supreme renunciate) was named Prabhu. He was a little boy full of fun and life. Nobody imagined what giddy heights, what tremendous depths lay hidden in the little body of this charming child. His artistic temperament and prowess were revealed when he was only six years old. He had inherited from his father's artistic temperament. A passionate instinct for the beautiful was the first channel which brought him in contact with God. But there was a rich undercurrent of asceticism which occasionally peeped through his demeanour. The mutually

conflicting instincts for the artistic and the ascetic and for the beautiful and sublime struggled within him for supremacy. In the end the ascetic instinct got the upper hand and turned him into a renowned "Renunciate". The child, Prabhu, matured into boyhood and attained youth. He was tall, square shouldered, broad chested and well built. He had a rosy complexion, a round face and a pair of lustrous eyes. The grace and dignity of his bearing, the irresistible charm of his eyes, the splendid music of his rich deep voice, and his artistry in playing the mradanga would enthrall anybody that came in his contact. Prabhu could captivate the hearts of his listeners, but his heart was irresistibly drawn to God. He was therefore seized with unrest, as unrest born of an anguish or the pangs of separation from God. The pangs of separation deepened into an alternate joy and sorrow, and began to flow

in sayings through his poetic heart. His youth was not all smooth. It seems that Maya often tempted him, but happily he did not succumb to her temptations. He beguiled Cupid, the God of Love, by his self-devotion to his ideals. He emerged triumphant out of the ordeal set in his mind by the conflicting trends of the pangs of separation from God on the one hand, and of the temptations of Maya on the other. His triumph over temptation is well expressed in the following saying: Strike not Thy arrow, Oh! Cupid Thou art stupid.Canst thou burn me Already burnt by the pangsOf separation from Guheshwara." Prabhu left home in the prime of his youth in search of God and Guru. This event is not an isolated act of heroism, but it proceeds from a habit of heroism cultivated in secret, preparing itself unconsciously for the sudden call. Though the method of preparation cannot be traced, we may give a rational account of his life, as he prepared himself for his work in the world. Prabhu is eminent for the self-devotion which is the pure gold of heroism. He devoted his whole life to the noble cause of realising God; and God is more than family, more than country, more than humanity. The devotion to a noble cause will confer a thousandfold more benefits on the world than devotion to wife, family, friend or country. To suffer or strive for conviction, to dare all and to risk all, trusting in the evidence of things not seen, is indeed a test of heroism. Prabhu has passed

this test which enabled him to realize the spiritual life in its finest phases of realization. He exhibits an upward tendency not only to pass into an ineffable calm, but also a contrary tendency to bring down a genial ray from the height of luminous consciousness to infuse the whole being with it and to diffuse its effect all around to benefit the humanity. This indeed was possible in the case of Prabhu, who could preserve a continuity between the unfathomable depth of being and the ordinary normal consciousness. The spiritual opening in many of us is occasional; the flicker of light comes and goes. But in Prabhu, it was all opening; because of this constant opening, he could freely move both in the spheres of spiritual silence and of secular expression. Prabhu, as a Jangama, in his itinerant rounds, withdrew the veil of ignorance directly from a Sadhaka and revealed the potentiality of a life Divine.

Himself, a direct centre of spiritual dynamism, he could readily remould the initiate and effect immediate conversion of character. Testimonies to such powers have been held by many illustrations in the Shunya-sampadane and by persons who came under the spell of his spiritual influence. Prabhu saw that the law of spiritual inversion speaks of the identity of the human and the Divine in essence; thereby he reposed trust in transcendence as the supreme form of spiritual experience. He could feel that his experience presupposes all other experiences and has in it something which is unique. But he was not all for transcendence; he was eager to open into humanity the chapter of spirituality sealed in the bosom of the Divine. The transcendence which became the all-absorbing concern with Sankara and the play which was the be-all and end-all with Caitanya, demanded equal attention from Prabhu. He realized transcendence, tasted the sweetness of the play, felt the interference of

the Divine in the cosmic affairs of men and enjoyed the grace of the Divine which would give itself to save humanity from ignorance. Sivaya Namah

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