[Poetry Chaikhana] Devara Dasimayya - The Hovering One

August 20, 2008

Ivan Granger,

The owner of this site has given me permission to post any relevent poetry from his site which may be relevent to our members.

Regards to all,

Alan --- On Wed, 20/8/08, Poetry Chaikhana <ivan wrote:

Poetry Chaikhana <ivan[Poetry Chaikhana] Devara Dasimayya - The Hovering OnealanadamsjacobsDate: Wednesday, 20 August, 2008, 5:21 PM

Here's your Daily Poem from the Poetry Chaikhana --

The Hovering One

By Devara Dasimayya(10th Century)

English version by A. K. Ramanujan

Ramanatha,who can know the beautyof the Hovering Onewho's made Himself formand of spacethe colours?

-- from Speaking of Siva, by A K Ramanujan

Amazon.com / Photo by atomicjeep /

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Thought for the Day:

Every person you interact with is within you.Every object you touch is within you.The moment of your enlightenmentreconciles the whole world.

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Here's your Daily Music selection --

Saranya

Soul Calls Two - In Thy Light

Listen - Purchase

More Music Selections

Hi Alan -These few lines, just a handful of words, are almost undefined, walking us along that thin border between frustration and delight.I mean, what is Devara Dasimayya trying to emphasize by naming God "the Hovering One"? Several of this Indian saint's songs recognize the Divine within the ether or akasha, the subtle atmosphere that permeates all material existence as a living field of knowledge. I suspect he is saying that God "hovers" in the ethers, just barely hidden behind the multiplicity of material existence.The Divine hovers, too, beyond all form, but from that airy formlessness, has inexplicably manifested form and color -- the entire kaleidoscope of surface reality.But those are just statements to satisfy the intellect. Dasimayya's question still rings in the air: Who can truly know, fully appreciate, and directly witness that beauty -- from the

apparently tangible to the most teasingly subtle? Who bothers to cultivate the vision that can take in the wholeness?--Devara Dasimayya was one of the earliest of the Virasaiva poet-saints, a forerunner of later beloved figures like Basavanna 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 that followed him, this gentle saint taught a life of complete

non-violence, even teaching 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 loving vision of Shiva as the eternal God.--Have a beautiful day! Try to see where all those colors come from...Ivan

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