Akka Mahadevi, the genuine mystic.

Akka Mahadevi was born about 1150 A.D. at Udutadi, a place of historical importance, in Shivamogga District of Karnataka State. Her parents, Nirmalshetti and Sumati, were great devotees of Shiva. Akka Mahadevi, even when a young child, displayed her religious proclivities which she probably inherited from her parents. She was a paragon of beauty and princess of lyrical poetry. Her vachanas or sayings are a poetic testament of her mind's reaction to the wonder and awe of existence. Though the same wonder and poetry are there in her sayings, yet they are deepened and widened by the calm of meditation. Keen spiritual longing shifts the emphasis from the wonder of the outside universe to the significance of the self within. The quest for God, her favourite Channamallikarjuna, rekindled the emotional exuberance of her early poetic genius and compelled her inwards to explore the infinite depths of the soul in which the central principle of creation or God is reflected. She measured the heights of philosophical imagination, yet she did not remain content with the mere intellectual curiosity, she sought more and more a centre of reference in God whom she approached through ardent love and devotion. She instinctively felt that man can never be fully and wholly fulfilled through self-discipline and knowledge, though self-discipline is arduous and knowledge superior. A more human approach to God lies through pure love and unselfish love which withdraws most of the obstacles that the ego interposes between the divine and the devotee.

The holy atmosphere at home, the beauty of the natural surroundings and the innate Godward tendency, all these were calculated to make Mahadevi a genuine mystic. The divinity already inherent in her began to manifest all its radiance while she was yet in her teens, i.e., at the age of eight when whe was initiated into the secrets of Linga. At the age of 16 this concept ripened into full resolve and she could state with firm conviction:

«Listen, oh, Mother! I love him, He is the one, the only one. He knows no birth and death. He is uncabined by caste or clime. He is boundless, changeless, formless; He is beautiful beyond comparison, All others fade away and die at last. I will have none of them. My Lord shall forever be The One Channamallikarjuna.»

A turning point, however, occurred in the life of Mahadevi when she, along with many others, had come to see the procession of Kaushika, the king of that place. The king saw Mahadevi among the crowd and was smitten with love for her. With a desire to marry her, the king started negotiations with her parents. For the sake of her parents she enters into a conditional marriage. When the king breaks the condition, she quits the palace. All of a sudden, a psychic conversion took place in her and she left Udutadi. She left her home and her parents. She left even the clothes she was wearing. Being guided by an inner urge she began to wend her way towards Kalyana, which was then a place of pilgrimage. But it was far away from Udutadi. Her parents and even some friends tried to dissuade her by picturing the difficulties she might have to encounter on the way. With unflinching faith in God she marched on, passing through hills and dales, through shrubs and thickets, through woods and planes and reached Kalyana where she was accosted by Basaweshvara, the founder of Anubhava Mantap, a spiritual as well as social academy. But Allama Prabhu, the President of Anubhava Mantap, put her many questions which she answered in a singularly charming manner. Anubhava Mantap was a rare but monumental institution in the cultural history of India. It was a nucleus around which gathered persons of all shades and all professions and of all ranks, ranging from prince to the peasant, to take part in the deliberations. It is gratifying to learn that amongst the assemblage of these persons numbering about 300, there were nearly 60 women mystics of whom Akka Mahadevi was the beaconlight. She could stand comparison with any woman mystic either of India or of the rest of the world. She excelled all in point of her astounding asceticism and intense desire to realize God. Her sayings are characterized by the exuberance of emotion, the sublimation of elegance and the transfiguration of grace.

When Mahadevi came to Kalyana, she found herself in the midst of the saints who were near and dear to God. Communion with the saints brought a great change in her life. The subtle but irresistible influence of the saints enabled Mahadevi to scale the heights of spiritual life. She speaks in eloquent terms of the benefits she derived from the company of the saints: «I sing, dance, hear, walk and speak in happy fellowship with Thy saints, oh, Lord!.. Through conversation with the blessed ones, I have gained respite from my grief. Oh! Lord, I cannot bear parting from the blessed ones who know Thee. ... When a soul rubs another and divine experience is born, the traits of the body are all burnt. The infirmity of my body is no more, the tremor of my senses is now stilled; the mind perplexed is now calm and serene. All this I gained through the company of the saints.»

The communion with the saints floods personality with new light and the passage from one spiritual state to another is achieved. By the communion with the saints even spiritual conversion is attained.

Akka Mahadevi started from Udutadi, arrived at Kalyana and proceeded to Shrishaila, the place of her last destination where she saw God Mallikarjuna face to face and was absorbed by him in the plaintain grove. This is indeed a secret union where the heart speaks to the heart:

«With Thy sweet soul, this soul of mine. Hath mixed as water doth with wine. Who can the wine and water part. Or me and Thee when we combine? Thou hast become my greater self. Small bonds no more can confine. Thou hast my being taken on. And shall not I now take on Thine? Thou for ever hast affirmed. That I may ever know Thee mine. Thy love has pierced me through and through. Its thrill with bone and nerve entwine. I rest a flute laid on Thy lips. A flute, I on Thy breast recline; Breathe deep in me that I may sigh. Yet strike my strings and tears shall shine.»

Mysticism is essentially a movement of the heart. It seeks to transcend the limitations of ego by surrendering it to the real, to satisfy no idle curiosity, to obtain no other wordly gain than to establish conscious relationship with the object of love. The mystic is actually aware of the music of the soul. In those enraptured descriptions of Mahadevi's inward experiences, nothing is more remarkable than her constant and deliberate employment of musical imagery. The condition of joyous and awakened love for which Mahadevi reaches, when her purification is at an end is to her the state of melody.

Personal idealism finds its exponent in Mahadevi, who is more emotional in temperament. She is deeply religious and the religious mind is concerned primarily, not with the explanations of things, but with experience of values. It regards experience and treats things from the standpoint of value. Mahadevi emphasizes the individual and personal sides of experience. She holds that our ethical and religious value judgements must help to determine our idea of God as the ultimate ground of Reality.