Akka Mahadevi ~ Female Devotional Poet

12th Century Poet.

Married to a King when young, Akka Mahadevi rejected life in the palace and left to become a naked wandering mendicant. Her life was devoted to Shiva.

 I have fallen in love, O mother with the
Beautiful One, who knows no death,
knows no decay and has no form;

I have fallen in love, O mother with the
Beautiful One, who has no middle, has
no end, has no parts and has no features;

I have fallen in love, O mother with the
Beautiful One, who knows no birth and
knows no fear.

I have fallen in love, O mother with the
Beautiful One, who is without any family,
without any country and without any peer…

People,
male and female,
blush when a cloth covering their shame
comes loose

When the lord of lives
lives drowned without a face
in the world, how can you be modest?

When all the world is the eye of the lord,
onlooking everywhere, what can you
cover and conceal?

*

Cut through, O Lord,
my heart’s greed,
and show me
your way out,

O Lord white as jasmine

O Lord, listen to me if you will, listen not
if you will not: I cannot rest contented
unless I sing of you.

O Lord, accept me if you will, accept not
if you will not: I cannot rest contented unless
I worship you.

O Lord, love me if you will, love not
if you will not: I cannot rest contented unless I hold
you in my arms

O Lord, look at me if you will, look not
if you will not: I cannot rest contented unless
I gaze at you in overpowering longing.

About A.D.

Generally just Being. Nothing in particular, no claims to fame. I like gardening and the sea, nature, art in all forms from poetry to films and everything in between, and being in the company of my family.