Sleep, great goddess sleep,
heroine of the three worlds,
spins and sucks up
all, draws breath
and throws them down
sapless.
I know of no hero
who can stand before her.
Struck by her arrows,
people rise and fall.
- #Allamaprabhu, vacana 699, in #AKRamanujan, ‘Speaking of #Siva’, p. 165
#Allamaprabhu, the most #metaphysical of the #vacanakāras, has many #beḍagina #vacanas ... (3/9)
Look here, the legs are two wheels;
the body is a wagon, full of things
Five men drive the wagon
and one man is not like another.
Unless you ride it in full knowledge of its ways
the axle will break
O Lord of Caves!
- #AllamaPrabhu
All language is the essence of beyond if one knows oneself.
All language is ignorance if one is unaware of oneself.
- #AllamaPrabhu
Poets of the past
are the children of my concubines.
Poets to come
are infants of my pity.
The poets of the sky are babies of my cradle.
Vishnu and Brahma
are my kinsmen and sidekicks.
You are the father-in-law and I the son-in-law,
O Lord of caves.
- #AllamaPrabhu
Awareness is not easy, is it,
O Lord of the Caves?
- #Allamaprabhu, vacana 319
'Battle with Raktavija.' Devi, the goddess, assumes the terrifying black form of Kali, whose extended pink tongue laps up blood, as related in the sacred text known as the "Devimahatmya." The demon-king Shumbha's general, Raktavija, is shown twice. Above, supported by the goddess's extended tongue, he holds sword and shield, and his drops of blood produce clones of himself. Below, he has at last been conquered. Date: between 1775 and 1800
Sleep, great goddess sleep,
heroine of the three worlds,
spins and sucks up
all, draws breath
and throws them down
sapless.
I know of no hero
who can stand before her.
Struck by her arrows,
people rise and fall.
- #Allamaprabhu, vacana 699
[ #AKRamanujan, ‘Speaking of #Siva’, p. 165]
For all their search they cannot see the image in the mirror.
- #Allamaprabhu, vacana 836
And the man who knows Our Lord, he gets no results.
- #Allamaprabhu, vacana 959
