Proper Analog Retro Video Capture With The Datapath E1/E1s

Capturing analog video can be a difficult task.  Analog video follows rather imprecise standards and is increasingly being discarded in today's world where 100% digital video solutions like HDMI and DisplayPort rule.  Capturing a digital signal is often simply a matter of buying a capture card/box and plugging everything in.  But capturing audio signals, at least those signals that do not conform to the "broadcast standards of 525/625i", is not quite so easy.  But while there exist inexpensive devices that can handle low quality composite and medium quality s-video sources, what about high-end analog sources like component video, 15KHz RGB and 31KHz VGA signals?  Moreover, are any of them compatible with 240p signals put out by retro consoles and home computers?  While there are affordable devices that can sort of handle these signals like the Startech USB3HDCAP, the results are often second rate.  But what if there was a device that you can acquire for similar cost and provide truly first-rate capture?  Interested?  Well if you are, read on to discover the power and the caveats of the Datapath VisionRGB E1 and E1s.

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You say "obsessed" as if it is a bad thing.

The Inspirations Of Oceanhorn 2: Knights Of The Lost Realm - Part 3

For this last installment of our Inspirations series, we had the chance to sit down with Heikki Repo, Creative Director of Cornfox & Brothers. Heikki, one of the founders of the company, is responsible for the overall vision and story of the Oceanhorn saga.

"When talking about influences, we need to differentiate between the inspiration for the whole series, and those specific to Oceanhorn 2: Knights of the Lost Realm," he says.

Upon the release of the first iPhone, the whole studio was excited to know everyone will have a powerful gaming machine in their pockets. At the time, the only RPGs on the device where some fairly obscure Korean-style action games – no RPGs in the vein of Zelda or Secret of Mana were available.

"Some of the games I hold most dear from my childhood were portable," says Heikki, "two of my favorites are Link's Awakening and Mystic Quest – Final Fantasy Adventure (Seiken Densetsu). I love them because they could combine the portable experience with extremely high-quality content. Mystic Quest, for example, uses a real myth (think Excalibur) and builds its story upon it. It also has a lot more drama than Zelda – a quite peculiar trait for those years."

Oceanhorn, since the beginning, was planned as Cornfox's own RPG franchise: an homage to the classics with its own personality. Versatility and gameplay experimentation were the keywords the company used as a guiding principle during the development of the first chapter.

"The first Oceanhorn is undeniably a Zelda-like, but we have XPs, and the story becomes increasingly dramatic towards the end – that's not something you'd expect, for instance, from a Zelda game. These ambitions carry on to the second game as well. When it comes to the actual plot, I think I've been deeply influenced by Final Fantasy VI, VII, and IX: they never take shortcuts, and everything that happens there is the outcome of very thoughtfully laid out worlds and events. What actually goes down in the games is the natural consequence of what already had happened before."

The story told in Oceanhorn 2: Knights of the Lost Realm is the background story of the first Oceanhorn: an opportunity to lay strong foundations for the saga, add more details, and create a universe that will keep making sense for potential new projects as well. "The production phase of Oceanhorn 2 brought everything into focus. Certain story elements were a bit vague, and I think we managed to handle them quite well in Oceanhorn 2."

Visually, Oceanhorn 2 will be an inviting, colorful game. Here the references are, again, Zelda and the Mana series: while its approach is console-style, the game will feature some dark undertones.

"Oceanhorn was developed by three people", says Heikki, "me, Antti, and Jukka. It was a 15-20 hours game, so it was a huge undertaking for so few people, but we managed to squeeze in cinematics and most of what you'd expect from an RPG. At the time I was playing The Last Story, Hironobu Sakaguchi's game for Wii." Sakaguchi had previously delivered Lost Odyssey, Xbox 360's own 'Final Fantasy'. The Last Story, developed in collaboration with Nintendo, wasn't destined, for obvious reasons, to set a new graphical standard, but the gameplay was something truly inspiring. "I saw that game as Sakaguchi's idea of where to take the genre's next: he focused on the feeling of presence, with party members talking to each other during gameplay, and an unprecedented possibility to use the environment to your advantage. The story wasn't limited to cinematics, but brought directly to the levels."

Energized by The Last Story, Heikki decided Oceanhorn 2: Knights of the Lost Realm would be a third person experience, with multiple party members.  

"I don't mind when people make comparisons with Skyward's Sword or Breath of the Wild, it means we're giving out the right vibes. If you compare screenshots from Call of Duty and Battlefield it might not always be obvious which one is which, but when you get to play, these games feel quite different. The same is true if you compare Oceanhorn to Zelda or Xenoblade Chronicles – they provide similar experiences but each in its own unique way."

One more saga that had an impact on Oceanhorn 2: Mass Effect. "After I played the Mass Effect Trilogy, I realized how the characters companionship and the way they explore the planets made those games great. I think that that, combined with the Zelda-like heritage of the first Oceanhorn, is what makes Knights of the Lost Realm special", Heikki concludes.

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Frictional Fan Jam 2019

Screenshot courtesy of Newsman Waterpaper and their mod The Streets of London.

#FrictionalFanJam

September is a meaningful month for Frictional Games, as it marks several of our anniversaries. This year on the 8th of September Amnesia: The Dark Descent will be turning 9, on 10th Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs will be 6 years old, and on 22nd SOMA will have been released for 4 years.

Therefore we would like to make this month special by celebrating your community creations. Please join us for Frictional's Fan Jam of 2019!

We have recently launched an official Discord server, so you are welcome to ask questions, share ideas, and chat with other participants in the #fan_jam channel.

Overview

The goal is to create a new fan work related to one of Frictional's games: SOMA, Amnesia games and the Penumbra series, or older titles such as Unbirth. You are free to create any transformative work: a mod, fanart and fanfiction, cosplay, or something different like a video or a plushie. The project should be at least loosely related to the given theme.

Since some projects (for example mods) can require more effort than others, you are also welcome to participate in teams.

Please see submission guidelines below!

Theme

Autumn/Decay

Deadline

The event kicks off on Friday the 6th of September. The deadline for submissions is 23:59 UTC on Sunday the 22nd of September. The jury will be going through submissions starting Monday the 23rd.

Prizes

The jury of Frictional Games employees and Frictional Games Discord moderation team will pick the winners of the jam. Jury members can participate in the event, but are disqualified from winning.

The winners will receive a poster of a game of their choosing, signed by the Frictional team members, sent to their home address (teams can decide on one address, max 4 prizes per team). The Frictional Team will also be featuring the works on a video with comments from Thomas and other employees. And finally - upon release of the next game, the winners will receive download codes for the game on an available platform of their choosing.

Contact

The jam is organised by Frictional Game's community manager Kira together with the moderation team of the official Discord server, proposed and drafted by Draugemalf. The easiest way to contact the organisers is on the Frictional Games Discord server's #fan_jam channel. The channel can also be used to share ideas with other community members, get feedback and look for team members.

If you don't have a Discord account, you are also welcome to contact Frictional Games through Twitter or our Contact Form, and we will help you as soon as we can.

Submission guidelines

• The works must be related to one or more of Frictional's games (SOMA, Amnesia: TDD, Amnesia: AMFP, Penumbra, and Unbirth, Fiend, Energetic)
• The works must be at least loosely related to the the thematic of Autumn/Decay
• The creation must be submitted on 22nd of September the latest
• The work must be your or your team's original creation
• For mods you are free to use assets you can legally use, or have the permission to use from the creators

Submitting your work

You can submit your works through several channels, either by posting an image (for fanart, cosplay and similar) and/or a link (mods, fanfiction and similar).

• On Discord, you can share the project on the #fan_jam channel. Please make it clear that it's your final version.
• On Twitter and Tumblr, you should mention @frictionalgames and tag the submission with #FrictionalFanJam.
• If you don't have a social media account, please send your submission to team@frictionalgames.com with the title "Frictional Fan Jam".
• Due to Instagram and Facebook's limited searching and tagging tools, we will not be accepting submissions through those platforms.
• All submissions will be posted by the jury on Discord's #fan_jam_showcase channel for easier judging.

And that's it! Go get creative! We're looking forward to all your great projects!

If you have any questions, just let us know.

The List - December 2019

It's been a while since I've taken a look at The List... Time to once again take stock of my published games, as well as current and back-burnered designs and prototypes! I'll try and be more thorough, like last time.

Published Games:
- Terra Prime (BGG)
- Eminent Domain (BGG)
- Eminent Domain: Escalation (BGG) (expansion)
- Eminent Domain: Exotica (BGG) (expansion)
- Eminent Domain: Oblivion (BGG) (expansion)
- Eminent Domain: Microcosm (BGG)
- Isle of Trains (BGG)
- Eminent Domain: Oblivion (expansion)
- Crusaders: Thy Will Be Done (BGG)
- Crusaders: Divine Influence (BGG) (expansion) [In manufacturing]
- Dungeon Roll: Winter Heroes (BGG)
- Gold West: Bandits promo (BGG)
- Gold West: Trading Post promo (BGG)
- Yokohama: Achievements & Free Agents promo (BGG)
- Brainfreeze

Finished But Unpublished Games:
- Eminent Domain Origins [Ready to print]
- Crusaders: Crimson Knight (expansion) [Ready to print]
- Deities and Demigods  [In line for art]
- Exhibit (BGG)
- Eminent Domain: Chaos Theory (dice game)
- Dice Works (BGG)
- Wizard's Tower (BGG)
- Now Boarding
- Isle of Trains: All Aboard (expansion)
- Suburban Sprawl
- Watch It Played

Current Active Designs:
- Alter Ego (BGG) [moved to Active]
- Apotheosis (FKA "Worker Learning") [moved to Active]

Recent Designs That Are Not On The Front Burner:
- Riders of the Pony Express (BGG)
- Automatown
- Moctezuma's Revenge
- Joan of Arc

Old Standbys - games which have been around, 1/2 done and untouched, for years:
- 8/7 Central
- Hot & Fresh
- Dynasty
- Kilauea
- Reading Railroad
- All For One (BGG)
- Odysseus: Winds of Fate (BGG)

Old Ideas that Haven't Gone Anywhere (Yet) - some of these have been getting stale as well:
- Investigative/Tabloid Journalism
- Red Colony
- Clash of the Kingpins
- Time = Money
- Dating Game
- Ticket Please
- Scourge of the High Seas
- Rondel Role Selection
- Cruise line game
- The Untouchables
- Day labor job based on craps

Misc and Really Old Stuff:
- 9-Ball
- Blockade Runner
- Roman Emperors (my version of someone else's game)
- Admirals of the Spanish Main (my version of someone else's game)


Let's take a closer look at the games that have seen some movement recently:

Published games:
Crusaders: Divine Influence (BGG) (expansion) [In manufacturing]
The first expansion to Crusaders: Thy Will Be Done (BGG) has been printed, and is about to ship from the manufacturer! I played two games with a sample copy at TokenCon in Oklahoma City this year, where I was a special guest. Divine Influence adds new building types, and replaces the Influence action with something more intricate and involved. There are 4 new Knight Orders as well.

Eminent Domain: Oblivion (BGG) (expansion)
The third (and final) expansion to Eminent Domain was released about a year ago, and is in stores now. Oblivion adds Clout tokens (1-shot role icons), and a Politics role. Using Politics, you can flip over the new Prestige planets in the set, and you can "vote" public agendas into and out of play. These agendas have lasting effects that apply to everyone. So far I haven't seen a lot of comments on this expansion, but the ones I've seen have been pretty positive, so that's nice.

Finished But Unpublished Games:
Eminent Domain Origins [Ready to print]
All of the art is done for this Terra Prime re-release, but the production is on hold for various reasons. The game is an update to my first published title, Terra Prime (BGG), and includes an as-yet unpublished expansion I made years ago. The art and theme has been changed to the Eminent Domain universe, as the game fits perfectly as a prequel to Eminent Domain. 

Crusaders: Crimson Knight (expansion) [Ready to print]
I have art ready to go for another Crusaders expansion, this one just adds red player pieces for a 5th player. If things go my way, we'll print the same exact thing in yellow to facilitate a 6th player in an "Amber Knight" expansion box. There's a new rule which allows space for more players to play on the same sized board -- you're allowed to build the same building as an opponent has built in a region. So if you built a Farm in a hex, I can build a Farm in that hex as well. This rule means the building spaces don't completely dry up with 5 or 6 players, and it adds an interesting dynamic as well.

Olympus on the Serengeti (FKA Deities and Demigods)  [In line for art]
The theme for this one was so commonplace that, when getting an artist involved, I tried to find something new and different. I landed on animals of the African plain... sort of like The Lion King is Hamlet, but with African animals, Olympus on the Serengeti is Greek mythology, but with African animals. Unfortunately, I wasn't liking the direction the art was going in, so the project has been set back a bit. I've got a different artist lined up for January, so hopefully this one will start moving forward again soon.

Isle of Trains: All Aboard (expansion)
I think it was 4 years ago that Dan and I gave the publisher an expansion to Isle of Trains, and while it kept getting pushed back, I have seen some art that they had made. My understanding is that it's in fact all done, however the publisher now would like to instead do a bigger box game that's like Isle of Trains including the expansion (!) So Dan and I have to figure out whether and how we'd like to re-design the game given the new constraints. One idea they had was to create a game that could use the base Isle of Trains game as an expansion to it... but that seems unlikely to pan out. Unfortunately, we haven't really made any progress on the re-design yet.

Current Active Designs:
Alter Ego (BGG) [moved to Active]
I have revisited Alter Ego after what appears to be 2 years, and I've been playtesting it quite a bit lately. My playtesters finally convinced me that the turn sequence was too confusing, so that's been simplified. And I came up with a new format for the Arch Villains: instead of bringing one or more of them into play at some point, all three Villains will be in play from the outset. Their henchmen will be placed below their Villain mats, and each turn, before you get to fight, each Villain will resolve a Villain Event card. The effect of the card depends on the Villain (the Sadist takes extra hostages, while the Mastermind limits your access to certain abilities) is worse if the Villain has 3 or more henchmen in front of them, so you have incentive to keep the henchmen at bay. So far this new format has been working very well, but the game isn't quite done yet.

Apotheosis (FKA "Worker Learning") [moved to Active]

Michael suggested the name "Apotheosis," which describes the game very well. Thanks to the help of a new co-designer, Rick Holzgrafe, we've made some serious progress on this game. I set it aside this summer and it's been simmering on the back burner since then, but pretty soon I'll probably try some of the latest ideas we've had for it.

Recent Designs That Are Not On The Front Burner:
Riders of the Pony Express (BGG) & Automatown

Each of these games got a playtest recently, which generated something new to try, but they quickly got set aside for other projects. My playtesters don't love Automatown, but they really enjoyed Riders of the Pony Express, so I should bring that one back into active development!

Maybe next time I'll add games I've developed (or am developing) for TMG... would that be something you'd like to see? Let me know in the comments... it's a pretty long list!

Harlequins: Not Sure If Good

Harlequins are decent at best.

I'm just going to come out and say it:  I don't think Harlequins are looking too good from a competitive standpoint.  With the book firmly in hand now, I don't see quite as much value from them compared to Dark Eldar when the army first got teased.

Before I completely put them aside, just note that I think there are a few things that Harlequins bring to the table.  These are few, they're niche, and they're certainly conditional, but I think Harlequins can have some interesting options that no one else can really pull off.  For example, when you look at some of the things that Soaring Spite can do with their Masque Form, you'll know that the army will be able to move 16"+6" and still shoot with 6" Fusion Pistols without penalty for 28" threat range.  This awesomeness simply cannot be ignored.  Similarly, if you take Faolchu's Talon for your Soaring Spite Warlord, you can move an additional 6" in your movement, and when you blow up, nothing happens.  No explosion, no models dying, you just roll out of your drive-by mobile and find another joyride to blow people up in.  This is great and all, but it's also very niche.  Hell, even their big fancy Webway Gate wants me to drop multiple Talos or a fat unit of Grots out of them instead.

So here's where I have problems with the army:  They're melee Horrors.  They're melee-based units that cost a ton but still have the same statline as those little pink dudes.  You have an army of 1W T3 4++ melee Horrors that desperately want to be relevant in a meta filled with resilience and anti-alpha.  Everyone and their mother knows that T3 and 4++ with a single wound just get absolutely murdered by almost any type of shooting and even below-average melee fillers that play much better in attrition simply because of the points.  Harlequins are great if you think that killing MEQ with 3+ for almost 30 points is great.  You know what else is 30 points?  A Grot, and a Grot comes with so much more resilience because a single Grotesque can be T6 with 4 wounds and 4++ with FNP.  Speaking of 4W, this is actually much bigger than people realize.  It takes 2 D2 shots to kill, out of kill scope of D3 weapons, and makes D6 weapons very nervous.  It's pretty much the sweetest spot for being infuriating at 30ppm.  When it comes to bashing in a Marine's face, a Grot does just as much damage but can stay alive much longer vs. almost any kind of shooting and any kind of melee.  In fact, Harlequin melee stopped being relevant ever since stronger alternatives came out:  Genestealers, Grotesques, Dawneagle Shield-Captains, the list goes on and on.  Hell, even Wyches are better for the points if you want a melee option.  Marines are dead easy to kill with any competitive army worth their salt because single-wound that cost a lot are just not cost-effective in today's meta.  Attrition matters and Harlequins play the game the worst out of all the units in the game.  Every other army that wants to be in melee does it better for the cost.  For me, since I play Dark Eldar in a very shooty manner, why bother being in melee if you can shoot them to death from far away?  My T3 5+ AS with an FNP Warrior that cost 6 points is looking a lot more cost-effective next to a 28-point Harlequin with a Fusion Pistol and an Embrace.  You are essentially paying a premium for a luxury that's not needed.

Arguably the best Form in the book.

This brings me to match-up.  In any given competitive setting, you're going to be looking at your local meta or even the greater meta (GTs or national events) and comparing yourself to all the other armies out there.  You have to factor in the fact that Harlequins are not cheap, not in the slightest.  Their unit choices are limited already, but what you pay for is a unit that's not very durable but has a ton of bad match-ups.  If you run into a Tyranid list with a lot of Genestealers for example, you know for the points that you're going to fight an attrition battle that you're not going to like.  If you're fighting a lot of Gaunts, forget about it because you already lost the points game here (anything with Fearless sucks).  God forbid you to run into a unit of Wyches, or even worse, a unit of Grots.  With Meat Mountain being so popular these days, just running into a unit that you're not going to be able to really hurt while still taking assloads of damage in return is going to suck.  The worst part is when you start thinking about this from a points perspective.  Having Harlequins killing cheap fodder units is a waste of time and it's only going to get you shot up afterward and killed.  A canny opponent is just going to spread out his line so he sets up kill zones for your units afterward (why Midnight Sorrow might be pretty decent).  IG carparks are going to be super annoying and so are most armies with cheap armor and plentiful shooting.  I feel very confident with my pure Kabal army vs. any army that takes a decent amount of Harlequins for example.  When you bleed expensive models, your firepower and melee threat goes down a ton.  That's one of the reasons why I prayed to the dice gods that GW was going to give the army -1 To Hit all-around.  Alas, this was not to be.  Instead, you have to pay up the ass in CPs and bet on Psychic powers or other instances to keep your basic stuff alive long enough to be relevant.

Harlequins are points-prohibitive.  If you take them, you won't have a lot of anything else.  If you want to run them in any meaningful way, you will take them as a Battalion.  You will already need multiple HQs to get the most of your army like the Shadowseer and Troupe Master, and Troupes just naturally fill in the rest of the core choices.  The difficult part here is getting into a points zone where you can still be relevant and be a threat to the enemy without costing an arm and a leg.  It's not just the points that matter here, it's about being relevant and a threat to the enemy.  What I mean by this is that you need to pack anti-tank in any competitive list as well as being a threat in melee because that's what you're taking Harlequins for.  The army, in general, is bi-polar.  If you want them to be a strong AT threat, you take Fusion Pistols.  If you want them to be a big melee threat, you mix up Caress and Embrace.  The problem is that they both go on the same model and when that model dies, he takes both of those upgrades with him.  Some people argue saying that you can take them stock, or leave specials off them as extra wounds, but why the hell would you do that?  If you're just looking at a few models that can do damage, Wyches can fill that role for much cheaper.  Unfortunately, you have this current situation where both ranged and melee special weapons cost a good deal of points on an already expensive model to begin. This is why the attrition factor sucks so much for this army.  It's not very durable and every model lost feels like chunks out of the army's total strength compared to other armies.  Hell, most would agree with me when I say that Soaring Spite is arguably the best Form right now for Harlequins, but what people talk about but don't consider is how many points a boat filled with Fusion Pistol Troupes really are.  If you want to decrease the cost by removing Fusion Pistols, you lose out on the Form's benefits.  You cut the melee weapons and you're now a glorified Wych.  Grats.  More importantly, for how many points you're spending trying to make this clusterfuck work, you're also taking away points from allies who can possibly perform the same role better.  Case in point, you can buy an entire Black Heart Spearhead for less than 500 points if you just want something to shoot.

Too much, too little.

So what am I getting at here?  It means that if you put a lot of points into Harlequins, you need them to be a decent standalone force.  But if you need them to be standalone, in the fact that you need your points to also equate out to the ability to kill tanks and infantry, then you're simply increasing the cost of each Troupe unit.  Taking a deeper dive:  For 500 points, I can buy a Black Heart Spearhead with 3x Ravagers with Dissies on all of them.  What do Dissies do?  They can pretty much wreck anything because this buys the army 27 BS3+ S5 AP-3 D2 shots that can threaten GEQ, MEQ, multi-wound, single-wound, high-armor, whatever, you name it.  This is just from shooting because you're not counting access to Agents of Vect, Living Muse, Cunning, or FNP on all your vehicles.  You put 500 points into a Harlequin force and what do you get?  You do the math and get back to me with exactly what firepower you have in shooting and in melee and see if the numbers pay off for you.  First, you need to be a certain distance from the enemy to threaten them with AT Fusion Pistols, then you need to be in combat to get the most out of them.  To get in, you have to brave the Overwatch, hope none of your 28 point models die, roll to get in, and then you can really shine.  You have to play much cleaner, much more precise and pray for some good ol' dice rolls because there's a lot that can go wrong.  With Grots, you just push models forward and results happen.  With Ravagers, it's the same thing, but you don't need to commit because you're 36" away from your target.  With Harlequins, it's all risk, and I hate risk.  And so do most competitive players.

You know what else is risky?  Conditional effects.  When you look at Harlequins, almost everything in the army requires you to be within 6", roll something to enable (Veiled Path), cast a psychic power, drop multiple Strategems across multiple phases, or something else.  Most of these things can fail to bad luck, some can be outright countered (Vect, Denied), and others can be counter-played sufficiently to really take the wind out of your sails.  The best counter to melee-oriented armies is proper spacing and understanding threat range and averages.  A good player with solid understanding of melee threat range and bubble-wraps will be murderous to Harlequins.  In general, the army is almost too much fluff and not enough consistency when it comes to a lot of their army mechanics and that is a huge risk to competitive players looking to win a GT.  The variables are already great, with matchups and different strength of schedules and players, so you don't need more randomness.  It's almost like you're playing Orks, but you're trying to build a competitive army so you took Eldar or Dark Eldar allies and they're all looking at you like WTF, you took up half of my army points?  A common theme within competitive armies is that they're consistent in their performance.  Just look at some of the discussions around Harlequins being a competitive threat.  It always starts with:  Oh first you take this, then you do this, then you cast this, then you play this Strategem, and then you shoot and lel you embark back in your transport!  Yeah, that's nice, but I play Prophets of Flesh and my entire army has 4++.  That's what consistency looks like and that's why it wins games.  That's why Meat Mountain is doing so much work right now.  That is until people figure out how to beat it.

There is a mild saving grace for the army though, is that they're Battle Brothers with both Dark Eldar and Eldar.  I would say that both of these armies are very competitive with a multitude of unit options.  Eldar arguably has the best psykers (Doom, Jinx) in the game, Shining Spears, Dark Reapers, Wave Serpents, and both the Hemlock and Crimson Hunter Exarch are insane.  Dark Eldar can run Meat Mountain down your throat and cost-effective Kabal units, Ravager Spearheads, Agents of Vect, and CP manipulation up the wazoo.  There is a lot of good stuff in both of these armies, but ultimately it comes down to the points question all over again.  Is Harlequins competitive enough to share the same points as these armies here if you're trying to build competitive?  Only time will tell.  Personally, I think the best Harlequin lists will be the ones mixed with either Eldar or Dark Eldar.  Cegorach knows that I've been trying to make it work.

I really hope I made some solid points here.  Don't get me wrong, I own a ton of the little fuckers and I love them to death, but they're definitely more of a fluffy choice than a competitive choice for me.  There are just too many good unit choices out there that makes army building with them difficult.  I know, I've been trying to design a good army list with Harlequins/DE and/or Eldar for the last couple of days and it's mind-boggling.  When I have something good, I'll show it off.

Speaking Of Siva: Touching The Feet Of God

By Jean-Pierre Dalbera. Source: Flickr

Speaking Of Siva is not a book that I intended to read. I was looking for Thich Nhat Hanh's Cry of Vietnam in the library, and while scanning the shelves, I came across this little-known book of Hindu poetry. I must confess that I don't know a whole lot about Hinduism. The closest things to Hindu literature I've read in my lifetime were Mohandas Gandhi's autobiography and Yann Martel's Life of Pi. This text was not the Bhavghad Gita, the Ramayana, or the Mahabharata. This was poetry. Yet through these poems, I hoped to understand something or another about the Hindu religion. After all, India is the most populated democracy in the world, to not know about their beliefs would be a mistake. Particularly in today's interconnected day and age.

Image used for criticism under "Fair Use."

Speaking Of Siva is a collection translated by A.K. Ramanujan. The poems in question are called vacanas which means, "what is said." Ramanujan described them thusly,

"Vacana, as an active mode, stands in opposition to both the sruti and the smrti: not what is heard, but what is said; not remembered or received, but uttered here and now. To the saints, religion is not a spectator sport, a reception, a consumption; it is an experience of Now, a way of being. This distinction is expressed in the language of the vacanas, the forms that vacanas take. Though medieval Kannada was rich in native Dravidian metres, and in borrowed Sanskritic forms, no metrical line or stanza is used in the vacanas. The saints did not follow any of these models," (37).

These "saints" that Ramanujan speaks of are Basavanna, Devara Dasimayya, Mahadeviyakka, and Allama Prabu. Though names on the tongues of English speakers, no doubt. These saints protested against the Hindu mainstream, as well the apparent rigid dichotomy between Hinduism's 'great' and 'little' traditions. Ramanujan writes that the heart of vacana is a devotion to a god, or a particular form of that god, in this case, Siva. They reject the effectiveness of the 'great' Vedic texts, as well as the 'little' traditions of local gods and goddesses (25). This poetry must have been as radical for India as Saint Paul's preaching of Christianity was for the Greeks. These saints were off to evangelize, and redirect the flow of Hinduism onto a singly deity,

"If, as these saints believed, he also believes that his god is the true god, the only god, it becomes imperative to convert the misguided and bring light to the benighted. Missions are born. Bhakti religions proselytize, unlike classical Hinduism. Some of the incandescence of Virasavia poetry is the white heat of truth-seeing and truth-saying in a dark deluded world; their monotheism lashes out in an atmosphere of animism and polytheism," (27).

Bold and radical indeed, well perhaps from an Abrahamic perspective, where there exists only one God whose throne cannot be supplanted. I could hardly imagine the opposite occuring (a movement from monotheism to polytheism) in Christianity or Islam. I say this because while Hinduism is often construed as a polytheistic religion, the parameters of belief are so wide, that it allows for its adherents to believe in any number of gods, including none.

In introducing the book, Ramanujan opens with a vacana that he feels is best representative of the ideas celebrated by this protest movement within Hinduism. The poem is by Basavanna.

"The rich
will make temples for Siva.
What shall I,
a poor man,
do?

My legs are pillars,
the body the shrine,
the head a cupola
of gold.

Listen, O lord of the meeting rivers,
things standing shall fall,
but the moving ever shall stay," (19).

Having been raised a Catholic, the gods and goddesses of Hinduism are especially jarring. They are not ephemeral supreme rulers of omniscience like Yahweh or Allah nor do they take on the fragile human form of a poor carpenter. They are something out of the myths of ancient civilizations, or if you want to compare to an active religion, the kami of Shinto. These are very human, earthly gods, that fight in glorious battles and enjoy glorious sex. The above poem by Basavanna conveys just that, a desire to connect the divine (abstract) with the material (concrete). In fact, the linga, a physical symbol used to represent Shiva, is very phallic in appearance, and is often accompanied by the yoni, which represents the womb.

To be fair, even the Abrahamic religions have traits of this yearning to root the transcendent to the perceptible. The Song of Solomon in the Hebrew Bible took a very Hindu approach, using carnal sex as a metaphor for God's love. In the Gospels, there's the confounding figure of Christ, a contradiction, he was fully God and fully man. Even Hercules was only a demigod. In Islam, the Qur'an describes the afterlife as a paradise with running waters, fruitful gardens, and maidens who look after you called the Houri.

The above poem features a poor man, who cannot contribute to gifts to a temple, like a rich man, becomes himself a temple for Shiva. It is also suggested that being a temple means far more than simply going to a constructed one. Ramanujan explains, "The poem draws a distinction between making and being. The rich can only make temples. They may not be or become temples by what they do. Further what is made is a mortal artifact, but what one is is immortal," (20). Blessed are the poor, indeed. "Things standing shall fall, but the moving shall ever stay." The first shall be last and the last shall be first. I was often told in Sunday school that "my body is a temple". I don't know if any of my other Catholic friends thought about our bodies in such a visceral fashion.

I'll comment where I can, but I believe that with poetry, one should read and contemplate upon the letters for themselves. Meditate on when these bhakti poets felt, and feel it for yourself.

Basavanna (1106 AD---1167 AD)

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Ramanujan says that Basavanna had been dedicated to Shiva, the Lord of the Meeting Rivers, since the age of sixteen. He found the caste system of society and the rituals of his home to be shackling to his faith, so he left home in search of better spirituality. Basavanna soon found a guru, with whom he studied religious texts, like the Vedas. It is said that Shiva himself came to him in a dream and ordered Basavanna to find King Bijjala. Basavanna refused, not wanting to leave his spiritual bliss. So Shiva came to him again and said that he would appear in the mouth of a Sacred Bull. Sure enough, when Basavanna waited by the Stone Bull, Shiva came in the form of a linga on its tongue. This was all the sign that he needed to go onward. Basavanna got close to King Bijjala by marrying his uncle's daughter, Gangambike. His uncle, Baladeva, being the king's minister. Basavanna eventually rose to occupy the position once Baladeva died. Basavana's egalitarian teachings of disregarding social norms like caste and sex, and challenging orthodoxy and religious ritual, attracted many a devotee to him. This defiance, of course, angered many traditionalists. When a marriage between a former outcast and a former brahmin occurred, they were infuriated. Bijjala tried to sate them by sentencing the fathers of the bride and bridegroom to death, but this only further angered them to commit violence against 'state and society.' Basavanna was committed to non-violence, and tried to convert the extremists, but could not. This prompted him to leave in failure, before death. Bijjala was later assassinated (61-64).

In spite of his apparent "failure", Basavanna's ability to build an egalitarian society, especially in the 12th century, is very admirable. Prophets of Virashaiva describes him as, "...a mystic by temperament, an idealist by choice, a statesman by profession, a man of letters by taste, a humanist by sympathy and a social reformer by conviction," (Veerashaiva). Again, fighting as the caste system, sexism, and religious orthodoxy, are issues that Hindus must deal with in India to this day. Gandhi knew that fight, and spoke highly of Basavanna's commitments in 1924, "Eradication of untouchability and dignity of labour were among his core precepts. One does not find even shades of casteism in him. Had he lived during our times, he would have been a saint worthy of worship," (Singh). Though if we wish to truly understand the heart of this man, then we must read his vacanas.

Basavanna deals eloquently with the struggle of faith, in a way reminiscent of Job. Why should the pious suffer? He pleads to Shiva, but gets to direct answer. We are left to contemplate, as he questions his existence, why does one exist in a world of such darkness?

64

"Siva, you no mercy,
 Siva, you no heart.

"Why, why did you bring me to birth,
    wretch in this world,
    exile from the other?

"Tell me, lord,
 don't you have one more
 little tree or plant
 made just for me?" (74)

21


 "Father in my ignorance you brought me
  through mother's wombs,
  through unlikely worlds.

 "Was it wrong just to born,
    O lord?

 "Have mercy on me for being born
    once before,
      I give you my word,
      lord of the meeting rivers,
      never to be born again, (68).

62

"Don't make me hear all day,
    'Whose man, whose man, whose man is this?'

"Let me hear, 'This man is mine, mine,
    this man is mine,

"O lord of the meeting rivers,
   make me feel I'm a son,
   of the house," (70).

There is an explicit focus on the vanity of the material world in comparison to spiritual gifts. Poverty is a moral value, much like what the Gospels preach, for the body is a transient object, "sic transit gloria mundi."

111

"I went to fornicate
 but all I got was counterfeit,

"I went behind a ruined wall
 but scorpions stung me,

"The watchman who heard my screams
 just peeled off my clothes,

"I went home in shame,
 my husband raised weals on my back,

"All the rest, O lord of the meeting rivers,
 the king took for his fines," (75).

101

"When a whore with a child
 takes on a customer for money,

"neither child nor lecher
 will get enough of her.

"She'll go pat the child once,
 then go lie with the man once,

"neither here nor there.
 Love of money is relentless,

"my lord of the meeting rivers," (73).

161

"Before 
    the grey reaches the cheek
    the wrinkle the rounded chin
    and the body becomes a cage of bones:

"before
     with fallen teeth
     and bent back
     you are someone else's ward:

"before
     you drop your hand to the knee
     and clutch a staff:

"before
     age corrodes
     your form:

"before
     death touches you:

         "worship
          our lord
          of the meeting rivers!" (78).

132

"You can make them talk
 if the serpent 
 has stung
 them.

"You can make them talk
 if they're struck 
 by an evil planet.

"But you can't make them talk
 if they're struck dumb 
 by riches.

     "Yet when Poverty the magician
      enters, they'll speak
      at once,

         "O lord of the meeting rivers," (77).

The uniqueness of the human being, and a possible touch of bisexuality,

125

"See-saw watermills bow their heads.
 So what?
 Do they get to be devotees
 to the Master?

"The tongs join hands.
 So what?
 Can they be humble in service
 to the Lord?

"Parrots recite.
 So what?
 Can they read the Lord?

"How can the slaves of the Bodiless God,
 Desire,
            know the way
            our Lord's men move
            or the stance of their standing?" (76).

703

"Look here, dear fellow:
 I wear these men's clothes
 only for you.

"Sometimes I am man,
 sometimes I am woman,

"O lord of the meeting rivers
 I'll make wars for you
 but I'll be your devotee's bride," (87).

The ecstasy of the bosom of Shiva,

8

"Look, the world, in a swell
 of waves, is beating upon my face,

"Why should it rise to my heart,
 tell me,
 O tell me, why is it
 rising now to my throat?
 Lord,
 how can I tell you anything
 when it is risen high
 over my head
 lord lord
 listen to my cries
 O lord of the meeting rivers
 listen," (67).

847

"When
 like a hailstone crystal,
 like a waxwork image
 the flesh melts in pleasure
    how can I tell you?

"The waters of joy
broke the banks
and ran out of my eyes

"I touched and joined
my lord of the meeting rivers
How can I talk to anyone
of that?" (89).

Basavanna lives on, but not only through his poetry, it seems. Though his attempts at social reform failed during his lifetime, his philosophy would have an enduring impact on Indian culture and history,

"The movement initiated by Basava through 'Anubhava Mantapa' became the basis of religion of love and faith. It gave rise to a system of ethics and education at once simple and exalted. It inspired ideals of social and religious freedom, such as no previous faith of India had done. In the medieval age which was characterized by inter communal jealousy, it helped to shed a ray of light and faith on the homes and hearts of people. It rendered the Hindu religion all embracing in its sympathy, catholic in its outlook, a perennial fountain of delight and inspiration. The movement gave a literature of considerable value in the vernacular language of the country, the literature which attained the dignity of a classical tongue. It eliminated the barriers of caste and removed untouchability. It raised the untouchable equal to that of the high born. It gave sanctity to the family relations and raised the status of womanhood. It undermined the importance of rites and rituals, of fasts and pilgrimages. It encouraged learning and contemplation on God by means of love and faith. It deplored the excesses of polytheism and developed the plan of monotheism. It tended in many ways to raise the nation generally to a higher level of capacity both in thought and action," (Kumarswamiji).


Devara Dasimayya (10th Century AD)

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Ramanujan says that Devara Dasimayya's writings would later be an influence on Basavanna's poetry. Dasimayya connected to Shiva through the hero of the Ramayana, Rama, so the end of all his poems are addressed, Ramanatha. Dasimayya did ascetic penance in the forests, when Shiva himself came and told him not to punish himself as a recluse, but to work in the world is the greater worship. Dasimayya became a weaver. Dasimayya became very successful in converting people to Shiva, so much so that legends were bulit about him, that he turned sand into rice, gave a dead boy life, and brought lingas from nothing. At the end of his life, he spoke to Ramanatha and said, "I've lived my life and done everything by your grace. Now you must return me to yourself." (91-94).

Dasimayya's sentiments on gender fludity would later be echoed by Basavanna in his 704th vacana. Ramanujan said of Dasimayya, that, "In his protest against traditional dichotomies, he rejects also the differences between man and woman as superficial," (26). The question of gender is not a new one, but one that people have been asking for years.

133

"If they see 
 breasts and long hair coming
 they call it woman,

"if beard and whiskers
 they call it man

"but, look, the self that hovers 
 in between
 is neither man 
 nor woman

"O Ramanatha," (110).

144

"Suppose you cut a tall bamboo
 in two;
 make the bottom piece a woman
 the headpiece a man;
 rub them together
 till they kindle:
                       tell me now
 the fire that's born,
 is it male or female,

                       "O Ramanatha?" (110).

These radical saints, and their opposition to specific times and rituals is also exemplified by Dasimayya, who integrates Shiva into every part of his existence. Ramanujan wrote, "Religions set apart certain times and places as specially sacred: rituals and worship are performed at appointed times, pilgrimages are undertaken to well-known holy places. There is a holy map as well as a holy calendar. If you die in Benares, sinner though you are, you will go straight to heaven," (26).

44

"For what 
 shall I handle a dagger
 O lord?

"What can I pull it out of,
 or stab it in,

"when You are all the world,

"O Ramanatha?" (100).

121

"God of my clan,
 I'll not place my feet
 but where your feet 
 have stood before:
 I've no feet
 of my own.

"How can the immoralists
 of this world know
 the miracle, the oneness
 of your feet
 and mine,

"Ramanatha?" (106).

98

"To the utterly at-one with Siva

"there's no dawn,
 no new moon,
 no noonday,
 nor equinoxes,
 nor sunsets,
 nor full moons;

"his front yard
 is the true Benares,

"O Ramanatha," (105).

For Dasimayya the "spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak," but it is also in the flesh that he finds Shiva.

23

"In the mother's womb
 the child does not know
 his mother's face

"nor can she ever know
 his face.

"the man in the world's illusion
 does not know the Lord

"nor the Lord him,

"Ramanatha," (97).

123

"Bodied,
 one will hunger.

"Bodied,
 one will lie.

"O you, don't you rib
 and taunt me
 again
 for having a body:

"body Thyself for once
 like me and see
 what happens,

"O Ramanatha," (107).

120

"I'm the one who has the body,
 you're the one who holds the breath.

"You know the secret of my body,
 I know the secret of your breath.

"That's why your body
 is in mine,

"You know
 and I know, Ramanatha,

"the miracle

"of your breath
 in my body," (106).

127

"Fire can burn
 but cannot move.

"Wind can move
 but cannot burn.

"Till fire joins wind
 it cannot take a step.

"Do men know
 it's like that
 with knowing and doing?" (108).

The reality of Shiva is self-evident in the natural world, and how Dasimayya perceives it.

4

"You balanced the globe
    on the waters
    and kept it from melting away,

"you made the sky stand
     without pillar or prop,

"O Ramanatha,
    which gods could have
    done this?" (97).

45

"The five elements
 have become one.

"The sun and the moon,
 O Rider of the Bull,
 aren't they really
 your body?

"I stand,
 look on,
 you're filled
 with the worlds.

"What can I hurt now
 after this, Ramanatha?" (101).

87

"Whatever It was

"that made this earth
 the base,
 the world its life,
 the wind its pillar,
 arranged the lotus and the moon,
 and covered it all with folds
 of sky,

"with Itself inside,

"to that Mystery
 indifferent to differences,

"to It I pray,
 Ramanatha," (103).

131

"Ramanatha,
 who can know the beauty
 of the Hovering One

"who's made Himself from
 and of space
 and colors?" (109).


Mahadeviyakka (1130 AD---1160 AD)

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Mahadeviyakka, also called Akka Mahadevi, is unique amongst the poets listed so far, because she is the only woman. Ramanujan writes that she considered her moment of birth to be her initiation into Shiva worship at age ten. She referred to Shiva as "Lord, white as jasmine," and even betrothed herself to him, though this didn't stop suitors from approaching. A king, and further an unbeliever, Kausika, sought her hand. It is not certain if they married, but Ramanujan thinks it to be likely. It does seem clear from her writings, however, that she renounced carnal love, in favor of a spiritual love with her Lord. As proof of this, she cast off all of her clothes, and covered herself in the tresses of her hair. In an effort to get closer to Shiva she went to a school where Basavanna and Allama Prabhu. Allama asked her why she replaced her clothes with her hair, and she answered in poem,

"Till the fruit is ripe inside
 the skin will not fall off.
 I'd a feeling it would hurt you
 if I displayed the body's seals of love.
 O brother, don't tease me
 needlessly. I'm given entire
 into the hands of my lord
 white as jasmine."

She was accepted. Yet being a woman in a patriarchal society, she always sought to break free from her bodily limits. According to legend, she died "in oneness with Shiva" in her twenties, (111-114). Mahadeviyakka internalized her "Lord, white as jasmine" to the utmost, The Hindu has described her outlook thus, "As she continued to meditate, Akka's concept of Chenna Mallikarjuna changed from that of the Puranic Shiva to the formless Divine — the one who pervaded her soul. She saw the Absolute in everything. Every tree was the kalpavriksha, every bush was the Sanjeevani, every place was a teertha, every water body contained Amritha and every pebble was the chintamani gem. Her very breath became His fragrance. His form became hers. Having known Him, there was nothing else to know. She became the bee that drank the nectar of Chenna Mallikarjuna, and dissolved into it. What remained was – " Nothing, none whatsoever"!" (Ramadevi).

Some days, Shiva is lost and Mahadeviyakka must chase after him.

50

"When I didn't know myself
  where were you?

"Like the colour in the gold,
 you were in me.

"I saw in you,
 lord white as jasmine,
 the paradox of your being
 in me
 without showing a limb," (119).

60

"Not seeing you
 in the hill, in the forest,
 froom tree to tree
 I roamed,
               searching, gasping:
               Lord, my Lord, come
               show me your kindness!

   "till I met your men
    and found you.
                          You hide
    lest I seek and find.
    Give me a clue,
    O lord
    white as jasmine,
                             to your hiding places," (119).

73

"O twittering birds,
 don't you know? don't you know?

"O swans on the lakeshore,
 don't you know? don't you know?

"O high-singing koils,
 don't you know? don't you know?

"O circling swooping bees,
 don't you know? don't you know?

"O peacocks in the caverns,
 don't you know?
 don't you know?

    "Tell me if you know:
                                    where is He,
      my lord
      white as jasmine?" (121).

75

"You are the forest

"you are all the great trees
    in the forest

"you are bird and beast
     playing in and out
     of all the trees

    "O lord white as jasmine
     filling and filled by all

    "why don't you
     show me your face?" (122).

12

"My body is dirt,
 my spirit is space: 
                            which
 shall I grab, O lord? How,
 and what,
              shall I think of you?
                  Cut through
                  my illusions,
                  lord white as jasmine," (116).

17

"Like a silkworm weaving
 her house with love
 from her marrow,
                           and dying
 in her body's threads
 winding tight, round
 and round,
                 I burn
 desiring what the heart desires.

"Cut through, O lord,
 my heart's greed,
 and show me
 your way out,

"O lord white as jasmine," (116).

Being the self-proclaimed wife of Shiva, she writes yearning cries for his love. In these writings we see, in part, the challenge of renouncing "carnal knowledge" for "spiritual knowledge."

79

"Four parts of the day
 I grieve for you.
 Four parts of the night
 I'm mad for you.

"I lie lost
 sick for you, night and day,
    O lord white as jasmine.

"Since your love 
 was planted,
 I've forgotten hunger,
 thirst, and sleep," (124).

114

"Husband inside,
 lover outside.
 I can't manage them both.

"This world,
 and that other,
 cannot manage them both.

"O lord white as jasmine

"I cannot hold in one hand
 both the round nut
 and the long bow," (127).

283

"I love the Handsome One:
     he has no death
     decay nor form
     no place or side
     no end nor birthmarks.
     I love him O mother. Listen.

"I love the Beautiful One
    with no bond nor fear
    no clan no land
    no landmarks
    for his beauty.

"So my lord, white as jasmine, is my husband.

"Take these husbands who die,
     decay, and feed them
     to your kitchen fires!" (134).

317

"Riding the blue sapphire mountains
 wearing moonstone for slippers
 blowing long horns
 O Siva
 when shall I
 crush you on my pitcher breasts

"O lord white as jasmine
 when do I join you
 stripped of body's shame
 and heart's modesty?" (136).

319

"What do
 the barren know
 of birthpangs?

"Stepmothers,
 what do they know
 of loving care?

"How can the unwounded
 know the pain
 of the wounded?

"O lord white as jasmine
 your love's blade stabbed
 and broken in my flesh,

"I writhe.
 O mothers
 how can you know me?" (138).

323

"I look at the road
 for his coming.
 If he isn't coming,
 I pine and waste away.
 If he is late,
 I grow lean

"O mother, if he is away
 for a night,
 I'm like the lovebird
 with nothing
 in her embrace," (140).

324

"Better than meeting
 and mating all the time
 is the pleasure of mating once
 after being far apart.

"When he's away
  I cannot wait
  to get s glimpse of him.

"Friend, when will I have it
 both ways,
 be with Him
 yet not with Him,
 my lord white as jasmine?" (140)

Though "spiritual knowledge" of Shiva has its sensations.

65

"If sparks fly
 I shall think my thirst and hunger quelled.

"If the skies tear down
 I shall think them pouring for my bath.

"If a hillside slide on me
 I shall think it flower for my hair.

"O lord white as jasmine, if my head falls from my shoulders
 I shall think it your offering," (120).

88

"He bartered my heart,
    looted my flesh,
    claimed as tribute
    my pleasure,
    took over
    all of me.

"I'm the woman of love
 for my lord, white as jasmine," (125).

120

"Breath for fragrance,
 who needs flowers?

"with peace, patience, forgiving and self-command,
 who needs the Ultimate Posture?

"The whole world become oneself
 who needs solitude,

"O lord white as jasmine," (128).

 199

"For hunger,
    there is the town's rice in the begging bowl.

"For thirst,
    there are tanks, streams, wells.

"For sleep,
    there are the ruins of temples.

"For soul's company
     I have you, O lord
 white as jasmine," (132).

69

"O mother I burned
 in a flameless fire

"O mother I suffered
 a bloodless wound

"mother I tossed
 without a pleasure:

"loving my lord white as jasmine
 I wandered through unlikely worlds," (121).


Allama Prabhu (12th Century AD)

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Ramanujan writes that there are various traditions surrounding Allama Prabhu, including one that sees him as Shiva in flesh. Harihara, a fifteenth century poet, wrote one of these many biographies about Allama. In his version, the poet is a temple-drummer who falls in love with the women Kamalate. She soon dies in sickness, and he wanders in grief, calling out for his dead wife. In his travels, Allama saw the golden cupola (or kalasa) of a temple. He excavated the whole area. In the temple, he found a yogi in a trance with a linga of Shiva. The yogi's name was Animisayya, and handed Allama the linga. The moment he did so, he died, but transfered his enlightenment onto Allama, who ends all of his vacanas, by addressing Shiva as "Lord of Caves". His contemporaries, including Basavanna and Mahadeviyakka, considered him to be a master of the vacanas. This title lives on in his very name, for Basava was given the title Anna, meaning  "elder brother", while Mahadevi was given the title Akka, meaning "elder sister", but Allama was given the title Prabhu, meaning, "Master." Allama, like the other four saints, rejected ritual worship, but often questioned their integrity. He brought up Basavanna's giving in the world's temptations, even while performing good works. He mocked Mahadeviyakka for flaunting her nudity publicly, yet covering her flesh in the tresses of her own hair. It is said that Allama achieved enlightenment through complete self-emptying. His body became the spirit (143-146).

Well, they call Allama Prabhu "The Master" for a reason. His poetry is the best written, the best refined. He has a good handle of the vacana style, and uses it to maximum effect. Once you finish reading one of his works, you are left thinking about the unique and strange metaphor it presents. Sometimes, I felt like I was reading through Buddhist koans, which at times, expressed the limits of language to describe certain aspects of reality. I'm not sure if that was Allama's intention, but I can sense him trying to push the vacana style as far as he could.

59

"Where was the mango tree,
 where the koilbird?

"when were they kin?

"Mountain gooseberry
 and sea salt:
                  when 
 were they kin?

    "and when was I
     kin to the Lord
     of Caves?" (149).

109

"If mountains shiver in the cold
 with what
 will they wrap them?

"If space goes naked
 with what 
 shall they clothe it?

"If the lord's men become worldlings
 where will I find the metaphor,

    "O Lord of Caves," (151).

213

"With a whole temple
 in this body
 where's the need
 for another?

"No one asked
 for two.

"O Lord of Caves,
 if you are stone,
 what am I?" (153)

429

"When the honey-bee came
  I saw the smell of flowers
  run.

"O what miracles!

"Where the heart went
  I saw the brain
  run.

"When the god came,
  I saw the temple run," (157).

556

"If it rains fire
     you have to be as the water;

"if it is a deluge of water
    you have to be as the wind;

"if it is the Great Flood,
    you have to be as the sky;

"and if it is the Very Last Flood of all the worlds,
     you have to give up self

"and become the Lord," (162).

616

"Who can know green grass flames
        seeds of stone

       "reflectios of water
        smell of the wind

       "the sap of fire
        the taste of sunshine on the tongue

       "and the lights in oneself

"except your men?" (162).

668

"The wind sleeps
  to lullabies of sky.

"Space drowses,
  infinity gives it suck
  from her breast.

"The sky is silent.
 The lullaby is over.

"The Lord is
  as if He were not," (164).

675

"Light 
 devoured darkness.

"I was alone
 inside.

"Shedding
 the visible dark

"I
 was Your target

"O Lord of Caves," (164).

775

"A running river
     is all legs.

"A burning fire
     is mouths all over.

"A blowing breeze
     is all hands.

"So, lord of the caves,
 for your men,
 every limb is Symbol," (165).

802

"Whoever knew
 that It is body of body,

"breath of breath
 and feeling of feeling?

"Thinking that it's far,
 it's near,
 it's out here
 and in there,

"they tire themselves out," (166).


Now Having Spoken With Shiva

In Mere Christianity, C.S. Lewis wrote that the Christian religion wasn't simply about being a nice person, but about becoming a new man,

"For mere improvement is not redemption, though redemption always improves people even here and now and will, in the end, improve them to a degree we cannot yet imagine. God became man to turn creatures into sons: not simply to produce better men of the old kind but to produce a new kind of man. It is not like teaching a horse to jump better and better but like turning a horse into a winged creature," (216).

A similar vibe can be felt through the these vacanas, Satsthala Siddhanta writes,

"The vacanas and later Virasavia texts in Kannada and Sanskrit speak of the mystical process as a successsion of stages, a ladder of ascent, a metamorphosis from egg to larva to pupa to the final freedom of winged being," (169).

What have I learned from these four saints who worshiped Shiva? Perhaps it was upon reading their verses, as vivacious as they were at their first composition, that these words affirmed for me the reality of "spirituality", if I may use the term. Not so much the spirituality of the transcendent, that higher beings like Shiva exist, but more so the internal spirituality of the human soul. What these four felt, I think, was real. We all feel it, "the numinous" as William Golding would say. For most people our sense of spirituality is provoked by an image of the cosmos from the Hubble Telescope. For them, it came from poverty, the cave, the honey-bee. We need not adopt all of their practices, or even their god. Akka Mahadevi, for instance, was a great poet, but her obsessive love for Shiva was utter madness. What I'm trying to get across is that these four found a certain peace of mind in their meditations, from which they were able to redefine how they saw reality. Such is the nature of poetry itself, to provoke thought or feeling in each written observation. To change the way we see the world's ordinary processes. To view life as a new man.

Perhaps I've learned something about the Hindu religion.


972

"Looking for your light,
 I went out:

   "it was like the sudden dawn
    of a million million suns,

   "a ganglion of lightnings
    for my wonder.

   "O Lord of Caves,
    if you are light,
    there can be no metaphor," (168).

- Allama Prabhu



Bibliography

Basavanna, Devara Desimayya, Mahadeviyakka, Allama Prabhu; ed. A.K. Ramanujan. Speaking Of Siva. Penguin Books: Baltimore, Maryland, 1973. 19-20, 25-27, 37, 61-64, 67-94, 97-114, 116-140, 143-145, 149-169. Print.

Kumarswamiji, H.H. Mahatapasvi Shiri. "Basava - The Great Socio-Religious Reformer." Prophets of Virashaivism. Veerashaiva, 2015. Web. http://www.virashaiva.com/basava-the-great-socio-religious-reformer/


Lewis, C.S. Mere Christianity. Harper Collins: San Francisco, 1952. 216. Print.

Ramadevi, B. "Akka Mahadevi: Shiva in her soul." The Hindu, February 24, 2014. Web. http://www.thehindu.com/features/metroplus/akka-mahadevi-shiva-in-her-soul/article5722583.ece

Sing, Yadu. "800 years later, Basava philosophy still relevant." The Indian Sun. Web. http://www.theindiansun.com.au/800-years-later-basava-philosophy-remains-relevant/