The Vachana:
Literal Translation
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The Literary and Social Context: A Revolution in Verse
The vachana as a form was itself a revolution. Breaking from the rigid classicism of Sanskrit, the Sharana poets wrote in colloquial Kannada, making profound spiritual truths accessible to all, irrespective of caste or gender. Their poetry was a direct expression of anubhava—lived, personal, spiritual experience—rejecting sterile ritualism and the oppressive social hierarchies legitimized by orthodox interpretations of karma. Akka’s work, in particular, is noted for its lyrical beauty, its raw emotional honesty, and its subversion of patriarchal norms. This specific verse is a prime example of the vachana style: simple in language, yet dense with meaning, addressing the most fundamental questions of human existence.
A Yogic Reading: The Inexorable Logic of Karma
The first two lines of the poem establish, with masterful literary parallelism, the foundational principle of prarabdha karma—the portion of accumulated karma that has ripened and must be experienced in the present life.
Line 1: ಉಣಲೆಂದು ಬಂದ ಸುಖ ಉಂಡಲ್ಲದೆ ಹರಿಯದು / Uṇalendu banda sukha uṇḍallade hariyadu (The pleasure that came to be eaten will not go away until it is eaten.) This line establishes the first pole of phenomenal experience: sukha (pleasure/happiness), the fruit of past meritorious action (punya). The metaphor of "eating" (uṇalendu) is visceral and potent. It signifies that pleasure is not an abstract concept but a tangible experience that the embodied soul (jiva) must consume and exhaust.
Line 2: ಕಾಣಲೆಂದು ಬಂದ ದುಃಖ ಕಂಡಲ್ಲದೆ ಹರಿಯದು / Kāṇalendu banda duḥkha kaṇḍallade hariyadu. (The sorrow that came to be seen will not go away until it is seen.) This line presents the inevitable counterpart: duhkha (sorrow/suffering), the fruit of past demeritorious action (pāpa). The parallelism is stark and deliberate. Just as pleasure must be eaten, sorrow must be "seen" or witnessed (kāṇalendu).
From a Yogic perspective, these lines describe the state of bondage within samsara. The jiva is trapped in the play of dualities (dvandva), tossed between the poles of pleasure and pain. This is a closed, deterministic system. Within this system, there is no escape, only experience. One cannot choose pleasure and reject pain, for both are consequences of a karmic logic that must run its course.
The Dramatic Turn: The Rupture of Grace
It is in the third and fourth lines that Akka performs a breathtaking theological and literary pivot. The poem shifts from the immanent, deterministic logic of karma to a transcendent, liberating principle.
Line 3 & 4: ತನುವಿಂಗೆ ಬಂದ ಕರ್ಮ ಹರಿವ ಕಾಲಕ್ಕೆ ಚೆನ್ನಮಲ್ಲಿಕಾರ್ಜುನದೇವರು ಕಡೆಗಣ್ಣಿನಿಂದ ನೋಡಿದರು / Tanuvige banda karma hariva kālakke Cennamallikārjunadēvaru kaḍegaṇṇininda nōḍidaru. (As the karma that came to the body was about to resolve, / Lord Chennamallikarjuna glanced from the corner of his eye.)
Here, the resolution does not arise from within the system. It is not a synthesis born from the conflict of pleasure and pain, nor is it a simple balancing of karmic accounts. It is a rupture—a clean break from the karmic cycle itself, initiated by an external power. This is the moment of Kripa (grace).
The "sidelong glance" (kaḍegaṇṇina nōṭa) is a profound and subtle literary image for this divine intervention. It is not a grand, thunderous act, but an intimate, effortless gesture of recognition and blessing from her chosen deity, Chennamallikarjuna. In Yogic and Tantric traditions, this is akin to Shaktipat, the descent of divine energy from a master or deity that awakens the seeker's own latent spiritual power and initiates a profound transformation.
This act of grace functions as what the philosopher Hegel would call an Aufhebung (sublation). The karmic duality is simultaneously:
Annulled: The binding power of the pleasure-pain cycle is cancelled.
Preserved: The experience of having lived through karma is not erased but is retained as wisdom.
Elevated: The soul is lifted to an entirely new plane of existence, beyond the reach of the old dualities.
The Final State: Union in the Void (Bayalu)
This vachana does not merely describe freedom from karma; it points toward freedom into a new reality. The Virashaiva tradition describes this ultimate state as Aikya (union) or, more profoundly, Bayalu—the Absolute Void. This is not a nihilistic emptiness but a plenum, a dynamic nothingness that is the source of all being, where all distinctions and dualities collapse. By the Lord's glance, the soul is not just freed from the karmic ledger; it is absorbed into the non-dual reality of the Absolute, a state where the very concepts of pleasure, pain, merit, and sin are rendered meaningless.
Conclusion: A Masterpiece of Mystical Expression
In four deceptively simple lines, Akka Mahadevi charts the entire spiritual journey of a soul. She begins by acknowledging the seemingly inescapable reality of the karmic law, a world governed by the relentless cycle of cause and effect. Then, with a single, powerful image, she shatters that deterministic framework. She reveals that the ultimate key to liberation is not found in meticulously managing one's karmic balance sheet, but in the radical possibility of divine grace. The resolution is not a synthesis of opposites, but a transcendent rupture that lifts the soul out of the game entirely. This vachana stands as a timeless testament to the core of the Bhakti path: the conviction that a moment of divine recognition can utterly dissolve a lifetime of karmic bondage, transforming the soul from a participant in duality to a unified being in the Absolute.
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Note on Two Theories of Resolution
1. The Theory of Synthesis (Thesis-Antithesis-Synthesis) (ವಾದ - ಪ್ರತಿವಾದ - ಸಂವಾದ)
This is a well-known model of dialectical progression, often associated with the philosopher G.W.F. Hegel, though he rarely used these exact terms. The structure is as follows:
- Thesis: An initial proposition, state, or force (e.g., the experience of pleasure from good karma).
- Antithesis: A contradictory force or proposition that arises in opposition to the thesis (e.g., the experience of sorrow from bad karma).
- Synthesis: A resolution where the conflict between the thesis and antithesis is reconciled into a new, higher state that incorporates the valid elements of both. This synthesis then becomes the thesis for a new dialectical cycle.
In this model, resolution is immanent—it arises from the internal logic and conflict of the opposing forces, resulting in a new balance or harmony.
2. The Theory of Breakthrough (Rupture and Aufhebung)
This theory addresses situations where the initial conflict represents a closed system from which there is no internal escape (e.g., the karmic cycle). The resolution is not a balance but a complete break.
- The Impasse: The thesis (pleasure) and antithesis (pain) are locked in a deterministic cycle. Any synthesis would still operate within the rules of this karmic system.
- The Breakthrough/Rupture: The resolution comes from a transcendent intervention—an external force that does not reconcile the opposites but shatters the very system that contains them. In the vachana, this is the divine grace (kripa) symbolized by the "sidelong glance," which breaks the logic of karma itself.
- Aufhebung (Sublation): This is Hegel's more precise term for such a transformative resolution. It is not a simple synthesis but a threefold process where the old system is simultaneously:
- Annulled: Its binding power is cancelled.
- Preserved: The wisdom gained from the experience is retained.
- Elevated: The subject is lifted to an entirely new plane of existence where the original conflict is irrelevant.
In essence, while the Synthesis model seeks balance within a system, the Breakthrough model describes a liberation from the system itself, initiated by a transcendent power.
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