Many stories do flowers tell:
Let the Jasmine tell mine,
Oh Chennamallikarjuna
Accept my words,
The spark of my soul’s yearning,
Roughened diamonds tinged
With coal dust, they are,
Let them be my homage to Siva,
Said, Mahadevi Akka.
****
The scents and sights
Of this world crowd my mind,
Which I choose to resign.
Transitory is my stay,
I seek to step out of the many skins
Of life -into Siva’s abode.
People’s words I shun
Because I choose to return.
Let me taste the sweetness of divinity.
****
You may call me a woman weak,
A mystic or saint
Whose words are a treasure
Hidden in the bowels of earth.
I name myself a bhaktin,
(A soul seeking to see beyond many veils).
Lost in worship, my arrow-like
Soul loses its essence when
plunging into the Divine sea.
*******
Mumtaz N Khorakiwala
16-1-2021
Picture courtesy: Birmingham Museum
Unsplash.com
Mahadevi Akka is a 12th century Saint, mystic from Karnataka who like Andal, or Lala Ded believed that Divinity was beyond gender.
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