REETIKA
VAllRANI
The True Account of Allama Prabhu
Other vacana saints recog nized him instantly as the Master.
Basavanna, Mahadevi, Cennabasava, Siddharama,
Muktayakka, and others considered him their guru. Basava
was known as Anna 'elder brother', Mahadevi as Akka 'elder
sister', but Allama was
Parabhu
or Master to everyone.
- A.K.
Ramanujan ,
Speaking of S'iva
When I addressed the miles of looking men
at the last confluence of these same stars,
why should I have spoken of my love
when I invoked the Lord of the Caves,
true prodigy of wonders.
Awareness came to me but not without a trial.
Earthly things, those I devoured and spit out - .
So I walked on, a
sanyasi,
not a good
sanyasi
but I walked on toward the Lord of the Caves.
But you who have read Harihara's version ask me of my lover;
that is, my wife.
Curiosity, your unblinking eye, what do you want to know?
We were young, Kamala only just grown.
What did I know of excess - I didn't know.
She was without beginning, middle, or end.
No, not like a flower's tendril, I was a boy,
what were flowers to me?
She was the stream between the fishermen' s legs
(the light-giving stream of the yellow sky)
and I drowned myself in desire.
What did I know at fifteen?
At sixteen, the fever came and Kamala was gone like a season.
Three men held me back from the flames,
three years they brought roots which gave sleep.
Forget her, they said, your name is written on the road to the Caves,
long name for a long road - son of
nirahankara,
son of
sujnani,
temple-drummer, teacher- man's son .
