Akka Mahadevi
Twelfth-century Kannada poet-saint of the Lingayat (Veerashaiva) tradition, one of the most radical female voices in medieval Indian devotional literature. Born in Karnataka around 1130, she was, by tradition, married against her will to a king but renounced her marriage and her clothing alike, walking through the world covered only by her hair, addressing all her vachanas (free-verse devotional poems) to her chosen lord, the formless Shiva called Chenna Mallikarjuna ("the beautiful jasmine-white lord"). Her work — direct, unornamented, defiant — has become a touchstone for both modern Kannada literature and contemporary feminist spiritual writing.
105
quotes in library
Quotes by Akka Mahadevi
105 quotes“My only law is the law of love. My only judge is the Lord.”
lawVachanas
“In the abode of the Lord, all distinctions melt.”
unityVachanas
“The Lord is my flute. My breath plays the song.”
fluteVachanas
“What I do not know about the Lord is everything. What I know is enough.”
unknowingVachanas
“O Lord, take my devotion as a flower. Even my unworthy hands can give a flower.”
offeringVachanas
“In the school of love, the lover is both student and teacher.”
learningVachanas
“Whoever bows to the Lord with full heart bows to himself.”
unityVachanas
“O Lord of jasmine, you are sweeter than honey. You are deeper than the ocean. You are higher than the sky.”
vastnessVachanas
“My ornaments are the Lord's name. My jewels are the Lord's praise.”
ornamentsVachanas
“Without the Lord, the body is meat. With the Lord, the body is the temple.”
transformationVachanas
“In the heat of love, even the cold heart melts.”
meltingVachanas
“The Lord is the breath of every breath. The Lord is the silence in every word.”
omnipresenceVachanas
“Whoever has tasted the milk of the Lord cannot drink the water of the world.”
tasteVachanas
“O Lord, in the deep night, you are the only star.”
starVachanas
“What is rebirth? The forgetting of the Lord. What is liberation? The remembering.”
liberationVachanas
“Whoever loves the Lord's face cannot fear his own face.”
faceVachanas
“In the heart of the lover, the Lord is the host.”
hostVachanas
“My beloved Lord is the One. My beloved Lord is the only.”
onenessVachanas
“In the soil of the heart, the seed of love is planted.”
seedVachanas
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