FFormer IAS officer and poet K. Jayakumar was not an expert on women mystics and sages until he ‘met’ them through her writings and poems. With the curiosity that fuels the collection in each poet, he delved into his works and found himself with their “reckless abandon”, “love and longing” and, above all, “what comes with being single-minded.”
In a speech on Women Saints of India: The Roots of Their Spiritual Audacity at Delhi’s India International Center on Monday, Jayakumar said, they showed such audacity that devotion proved outrageous. He always deeply questioned the social norms that differentiated him from the male sages.
In 500-odd verses written by Buddhist female sages therigathanOne of the oldest known collections of women’s literature – dates back 6 years with some poems compiled over the course of 300 years.th century BC – A constant conflict exists between the notions of home and the homeless. For them, freedom is achieved through leaving this figurative home and embracing homelessness, or the discomfort that accompanies it.
The result or perhaps even the cause of this freedom is the complete disregard for the physical body. Jayakumar, who is also the founding vice-chancellor of the Malayalam University in Tirur, Kerala, speculates that his gender, his sexuality – which connects him to society – are derived from his spirituality.
Akka Mahadevi, 12thThe century-old Lingayat poet from Karnataka, “described as a woman by name only and lost her sexual identity for lifelong surrender,” he said.
He exemplified a way of life that was in complete contrast with modern times. “Is that why we’re not all here? Because we can’t live like that?” He joked.
Not everyone was convinced about Jayakumar’s use of the word ‘audacity’ to describe the female mystics and sages of India. “If it stems from spiritual attainment, there is nothing audacious about their way of living,” said a woman participating in the speech.
Read also:
Reading Lal Deed, Akka Mahadevi
As a poet, Jayakumar was attracted by his clarity of thought, directness, unmistakable confidence in his work and above all, his fearlessness.
He read a verse from the 14th century Kashmiri poet, saint and mystic, Laleshwari or Lal Ded- ,Here, in this birth, I have become free from the cycle of birth and death. what can the world do to me, According to Jayakumar, her confidence was rooted in “liberation from the insecurities and hesitations of being a woman”.
Before any of the audience could question it, he urged them to look at poetry not through the prism of “modern feminism” but through the provided view of all-encompassing devotion and spirituality.
Some in the audience did not agree with Jayakumar’s argument, urging him to speak on the “social rebellion” of these poets.
However, Jayakumar shrugged off such questions, saying that “how is it not fashionable to talk about spirituality these days,” and that he was “not talking about religiosity.”
He opted to read a poem by Akka Mahadevi to end the session on a strong note. “Who cares… Who cuts the tree with leaves once the fruit is plucked.. “They weren’t thinking about getting naked.”
(Edited by Zoya Bhatti)