12th Century of Karnataka were surreal
times, the most successful Rulers of those time Chalukyas of Kalyana had gone
down but were not completely out but their absence from the main stage had
created space for their Commander in Chief to take over as the King. This has
been described by historians as the Kalachuri Interregnum and the King who
ruled during this interregnum was Bijjala. Interregnums are times of confusion;
the King and the ruling class are always confused and are looking for any
opportunity to establish their authority through any of kind of support and
legitimization. Amidst this chaos rose a positive force which was encouraged by
the king himself as it seemed the right and the popular thing to do.
Basaveshwara – Basavanna - The Basava – the bulwark of the social and spiritual
revolution was that positive force which gravitated all positive forces of
those days under one roof and created an institution which was live and alive
in functioning.
Basaveshwara was the Treasurer and then the Prime
Minister of the interregnum. He used his stature for positive reinforcements
all the goods of society which existed then.
The institution that The Basava created was the Anubhava Mantapa – the
House of Experiences. Anubhava Mantapa was the water shed of all the positive
forces of those days and flagbearer of all the knowledge which had no language
barrier, no caste barrier, no religion barrier and no gender barrier. It was
pure and it was experiential. The experience that the Sharanas had were written
down for futures to come as Vachanas. When watershed reached its threshold, the
bulwark of this institution – The Basava moved ahead of the times he lived in –
he caused a sudden revolution – The Kalyana Kranti. The ruling class and the
challenged class were threatened by this sudden upsurge, the King was ill
advised that Basavanna was becoming a political force who will challenge him.
When the ruling class is threatened they do what’s obvious, they use their
weapon of power even on the positive forces around them…. Kalyana Kranti turned
in to Chaoas …. Anubhava Mantapa and The Basava were attacked and the
institution … the Sharanas and their
Vachanas got lost in this chaos … The King – Bijjala Deva was killed … the name
used for legitimization of his killing was that of The Basava – but it was
obvious for a political observer to understand that killing was for Political
Gain and The Basava had nothing to do with Politics.
Kalyana – the capital of those days may have descended
to chaos and utter confusion but the river of positive energy that Basava
created through Anubhava Mantapa never vanished. Philosophers such as Plato
have always conceptualized a perfect Society and the rule in that society was
that of a Philosopher King. Basava did what all the philosophers of the world
couldn’t do at that time – to actual develop a society which was based on a
firm yet positive philosophy where artificial and selfish divisions weren’t
allowed. He developed a society based on
social and spiritual justice. The ruler who delivered this Justice was the Philosopher
King which the Anubhava Mantapa recognized as Shoonya Simhasana – The Throne
belonged to that man/ woman who had achieved nothingness or spiritual
absoluteness. The only Philosopher King that the Anubhava Mantapa could
experience was Allama Prabhu and the force behind the throne was Basava who
stood as a Bulwark for its social existence.
The house of Experiences was the house of feminism,
social equality, unbound spiritual enlightenment which had no entitlements. It
was a spiritual movement which had Shiva at its Heart and the tenets of
Veershaivism as its core path. The concept of Shiva became a loved concept as Shiva
was one among the trinity, the deity of death, deity of complete nothingness,
the feminist who gave half of his self to his better half, the god who lived in
cremation grounds unbound by the rules of society, the deity of all creeds who
knows no threads of entitlements, the rebel of the untruth and the destroyer of
the evil, the warrior who image inspires even the dead, the ever forgiving
divine, the fountain head whose dance moves the cosmos – Shiva, The Shankara –
The lord of all positivity in the cosmos. The idea of Shiva had always existed
but Anubhava Mantapa made the concept of abstract Shiva a personal philosophy
for each human through the Ishta Linga … it broke the barrier of the large
temples which were the chosen places of worship and made the idea of Shiva more
important that the methods and physical form of worship. It makes human
(Manushya) to attain Godliness (Mahesha), the path from Manushya to Mahesha is the
path of continuous empowerment enabled by a guru. This path doesn’t require being
averse from reality or regular family life. It’s a path which takes everybody
towards spiritual enlightenment.
The ideas of Anubhava Mantapa weren’t new even for
those days. Those ideas existed amongst best in what is called Hindutva of
today – or general way of life of those days, the ideas followed were majorly
from Veerashaivism – a philosophy of Hinduism which kept Shiva at its center
and the Guru and Shishya parmapara as the method of learning – which was
crudified as Lingayatta (The bestowing of ishta/ personal Linga/ philosophy of
god by the Guru). However, the Anubhava Mantapa made these ideas the center of
its philosophy and broke the barriers of caste/ gender entitlements to gain
through these philosophies. People from so called untouchable communities sat as
equals in Anubhava Mantapa and were celebrated for their stature and
enlightenment. The stature of women was first time seen in the same light as any
men. The records of the discussion between Akka Mahadevi and Allama Prabhu is
probably the best feminist literary classics which was far ahead of its times
and is relevant for the future as well.
Basavanna is amongst the best social forces that the
world has ever seen. He had a sense of Divinity is all his activities. He used
his position and wealth to augment the positivity in the society. His work and
the work which he enabled through the Sharanas of the Anubhava Mantapa would
transcend thousands of years and inspire millions through the generations. He
understood the core solution to break the caste barriers of the society was in
marriage and his act of enabling a marriage between getting a lower caste boy
to marry and higher caste girl became a triggering point for the King who had
already been suspicious of the growing popularity of Basavanna. The solution
that Basavanna took (i.e of inter caste marriages) may have been the most
effective method of breaking the caste system but it was erroneous of not
taking the King into confidence and taking measures against the caste
hierarchies to protect the Anubhava Mantapa. The chaos which followed Kalyana Kranti
sent the Sharanas and their vacahans in to hiding and their energy got
scattered as they were being hunted down by the ruling class.
Despite the scattering of the vacahanas, the Shoona
Smpadhane (collection of vachanas) activity taken up during the Vijayanagar
empire period ensued that the knowledge was not completely lost. The ensuing
movement of Veershaivism/ Lingayatism made sure that the philosophy of the
Sharanas was promoted as a way of life through the Mutts (religious
institutions) and being a movement, which was opposed to many regular ways of
the lives, it was both defensive and aggressive in many fronts and it took a
form of a caste under the Umbrella of Hindhuism instead being a living
alternative philosophy under the Hinduism. Further, given the nature of humans
some of the Lingayats and Veerashaivas took their professions and their
forefather’s professions as more important for the society and started claiming
superiority and thus leading to further segregation as sub castes. These are
the ills of any Human groupings, we always find differences to segregate and
form groups for our own immediate benefits. However, if the tradition of
Anubhava Mantapa would have been alive through this course the number of
selfish indulgences/ groupings would have been relatively controlled.
Cutting back to the present reality the - 21st
century, the Democratic era, these are days where political interregnums are
more of a rule than an exception. The political ruling class often comes to
power based on unsustainable means and thus are often in fear of being
eliminated. When a Monarch such as Bijjala Deva tries to align with all the
backward forces to legitimize his power in times of uncertainty, then we can’t
expect broadmindedness from electoral Politics of the present day where every
day is a day of uncertainty and each leader has a parochial base. In an
unenlightened society, the politicians are narrow minded enough to interfere in
the fabrics of the society and break the tranquility for their power needs.
However, the socio/ religious leaders in the society are supposed to resist
such interferences and hold the fabric of society together. But given the times
we leave the socio/ religious leader such leaders of Mutts and such other
institutions are bereft of the Philosophies that have transcended time.
Today there is a growing call for recognizing
Lingyatism as separate religion. The fight is for a minority status and there
are wild promises being spread amongst the people regarding the advantages of
being declared a minority. The fight has become a ridiculous one with
dictionaries and pictionaries taking the forefront of whether to declare this
minority as a Lingayat or a Veerashaiva when there is no difference between
either. However, what is being skipped is the question of How can an advanced
way of life based on the very ideas of Hinduism or its way of life be declared
a different religion? Shiva the core of Lingayat way of life is one among the
trinity conceptualized in Hinduism. Would these new claimants for minority
status claim for a Patent on Shiva or ask him to divorce his family and join
this new madness for minority status? Would they claim a patent towards the
path to Parashiva or Parambrahma? The Advaita, Vishistaadvaita and the Shakthi
Vishistaadvaita may all make same claim because they all have the same path in
spirit but described in different words….. It will be time to play the
dictionary game all over again!
The Mandal brand of reservation has brought in a bad
culture of easy division politics. The easy path of every political party is to
augment some of the castes/ sects based groupings is to promise a reservation
or elevation in their reservation by declaring them more backward. The
Lingayats/ Veershaivas are relatively a large group of political significance
and have achieved certain level of development due to their stress on education
and educational institutions. However due to adoption of backward imagery politics
by other caste groupings who are similar in status and size these have been declared
backward and have taken up few more public offices due to the reservation both
at Central and state level. Due to the Judicial Interference it has become
difficult for better developed communities such as Lingayats to gain higher
reservations thus a new trend has been ensued by few people of this community
to find some unknown difference and bring them to fore and then seek Minority
status. This is a new argument in minority politics and will not be the last
one.
The Lingayats / Veershaivas can’t be blamed for such a
parochial argument because other communities with similar politicking have
achieved public offices through such arguments. However, the background of this
new argument has been based on Election Politics which is aimed at splitting
the Lingayat vote and thus benefitting from it. This is dangerous and
condemnable by any standards of the politics. When this is done by the
government in power, it’s becomes an anti-thesis for democracy itself. Fringe
voices who are heads of unknown mutts have become forerunners in this argument
and the government aided elements have created stages for this hate politics.
Forums have been created to enhance and viralize the argument for minority
status. The owners of educational institutions are going to benefit from
minority status and they are standing as support for minority status.
Unfortunately, this support also means supporting fringe elements of the
community and castigating the nay Sayers. The critics for this movement are
classified as Veershaiva or Hindutva people and branded as traditionalists who
are not part of the community. The history itself is being re-written at the
convenience of the so called propogandist of Minority status.
Politics for seeking more legitimate benefits for group
of people is acceptable in democracy. However, this new brand of minority
politics is an artificial demand for a minority which doesn’t exist. It will
bring the fraternal relations that the Lingayat/ Veershaiva community has with
the general Hindu Populace to a friction. The social confluence which is at the
core of Lingayat movement will be first casualty to the minority status.
Lingayat have similar tradition like of any Hindu community and their practices
which require deep study and understanding. However, any ignorance or blatant
laziness to understand their traditions is termed as Basava Tatva and this
ignorance is being celebrated. There are Basavanna’s statues measuring in 100s
of feets being built which is a dishonor for a man who abhorred blatant and
blind statue worships. These are acts of people who don’t have any
understanding and they are merely seeking popularity under the stature of
Basavanna. The movement for minority status is popularizing such voices who are
proponents of ignorance.
A Lingayat has the freedom to seek every avenue for
his/ her next level spiritual upliftment.
He can do what the Sharanas may not have promoted as long as it is a
path towards spiritual upliftment. The Vachanas are a classic literature which
if followed are paths to an enlightened person but these are not religious
scriptures. If these vachanas, written by various sharanas are boxed as a
religious scripture then it will be an anti-thesis to the individualistic
spirit of the sharanas. Minority Status is being claimed based on the ideas of
these vachanas which would be an artificial creation and blatant misuse of a
poetic creation. To impose scriptures and rules where none exits, is nothing
but an act to rob an individual of a Spiritual liberty which is the core of
Veerashaivism and Hindutva
I’m a trying Hindu and a trying Lingayat and a trying
human. I use ‘trying’ deliberately because although I’m born with these aspects
as my immediate social associations, I feel these are qualifications which we
should qualify in to. I as an individual have the liberty to choose my path of
spiritual upliftment. My social identity can’t at the mercy of a loud group
supported by a government which is looking for votes in the next election. My
spiritual liberty can’t become a sacrificial lamb for the trivial benefit of a
Minority status. The minority status on paper today will grow up to a big wall
tomorrow and will sacrifice the social fraternal fabric of my country tomorrow.
The path from Anubhava (Experiential) to the Bhava
(existential) needs can’t usurp my spiritual Identity.
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