These short prayers devoted to \u015aiva were composed by four different saints. Allam Prabhu, Basava\u1e47\u1e47a, and Mah\u0101d\u0113viyakka lived in 12th-century Karnataka, while D\u0113vara D\u0101simayya was born in Mudanuru in the mid-10th century. Each addresses \u015aiva through a different name: Lord of the Meeting Rivers, R\u0101man\u0101ta, Lord white as Jasmine, Lord of Caves. Through these many invocations, they celebrate the immense and paradoxical god who creates, protects, transforms, and destroys the universe. The poems are deeply poetic, filled with images drawn from nature and the elements, reflecting a religion that feels both intimate and beautiful. Reading them, I was struck by a profound sense of peace and serenity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“If it rains fire Taken from A. K. Ramanujan’s translation and edition of Speaking of \u015aiva, first published in 1973<\/mark><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" These short prayers devoted to \u015aiva were composed by four different saints. Allam Prabhu, Basava\u1e47\u1e47a, and Mah\u0101d\u0113viyakka lived in 12th-century Karnataka, while D\u0113vara D\u0101simayya was born in Mudanuru in the mid-10th century. Each addresses \u015aiva through a different name: Lord of the Meeting Rivers, R\u0101man\u0101ta, Lord white as Jasmine, Lord of Caves. Through these many […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":21563,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[291,299,293],"tags":[118,89,107],"class_list":["post-21562","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-books-2026","category-challenge-abc-prenoms-2025-2026","category-challenge-riquiqui-2026","tag-beauty","tag-faith","tag-religion"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/redheadwithabrain.ch\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/baatcheet-films-aW6rNqhQzi4-unsplash-scaled-e1778089709477.jpg?fit=1792%2C1780&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/redheadwithabrain.ch\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21562","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/redheadwithabrain.ch\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/redheadwithabrain.ch\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redheadwithabrain.ch\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redheadwithabrain.ch\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21562"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/redheadwithabrain.ch\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21562\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21568,"href":"https:\/\/redheadwithabrain.ch\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21562\/revisions\/21568"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redheadwithabrain.ch\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21563"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/redheadwithabrain.ch\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21562"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redheadwithabrain.ch\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21562"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redheadwithabrain.ch\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21562"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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.”<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n