So long as this breath fills your nostrils,
Why seek out fragrant flowers?

Peaceful, compassionate, patient, already your own master,
Why do you need to cross your legs to Know?

Once the entire world is yourself,
What could a life of solitude add?

O white Jasmine Lord –

***

I do not call it his sign,
I do not call it becoming one with his sign.
I do not call it union,
I do not call it harmony with union.
I do not say something has happened,
I do not say nothing has happened,
I will not name it You,
I will not name it I.
Now that the White Jasmine Lord is myself.
What use of words at all?

Mahadevihakka (12^th c) gave up traditional dress along with conventional life and traveled the countryside alone.  She was an ecstatic devotee of Shiva whom she addressed as White Jasmine Lord. Stories say that when she died, she disappeared in a burst of light.

Today we read two poems by a devotee of Lord Shiva, one of the primary forms of God in Hinduism. At the highest level, Shiva is regarded limitless, transcendent, unchanging and formless. Mahadevihakka’s poetry reflects her belief in the complete sufficiency of her experience of the oneness of self and the divine.

Once the entire world is yourself,
What could a life of solitude add?

She is one with the Creator. Once the whole world is realized as divine; there is no longer any need for meditation or isolation. God is everywhere and everywhen. And, like other poets we have read, union cannot be explained or described. Words are of no use at all.