A Gypsy soul - Anil's blog: Koodalasangama - Aikya linga of Lord Basaveshwara

Koodalasangama

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Kudalasangama/Koodalasangama (also written Kudala Sangama in India is an important center of pilgrimage for people of the Lingayat faith. It is located about 15 km from the Almatti dam site in Bagalkot district of Karnataka state. The Krishna and Ghataprabha rivers merge here and flow towards Srisaila (another pilgrim center) of Andra Pradesh. The Aikya Mantapa or the holy Samadhi of Basavanna, the founder of the Lingayat faith along with Linga, which is believed to be self-born (Swayambhu), is situated here. The Kudala Sangama Development Board takes care of the maintenance and development of this place.

Basava (also known as Basaveshwara (Kannada:ಬಸವೇಶ್ವರ) or Basavanna(ಬಸವಣ್ಣ) 1134–1196) was a philosopher and a social reformer. He fought against practice of caste system and rituals in Hinduism. He is also called as "Vishwa-guru". His teachings and preachings go beyond all boundaries and are universal and eternal. He was a great humanitarian. Basava advocated a new way of life wherein the divine experience was the center of life giving equal opportunity to all aspirants regardless of the gender, caste, and social status. The cornerstone behind his movement was the firm belief in a universal concept of God. Basava has a proponent of monotheistic concept of formless God.

He believed in the principle Kaayakave Kailasa one step ahead of Ravindranath Tagore's 'work is worship'. It was at this time that the Vachanas, simple and easy-to-understand poetic writings which contained essential teachings, were written. Below are couple of the thousands of Vachanas that were produced:

The power of knowledge destroys ignorance;

The power of light dissipates darkness;

The power of truth is foe of all untruth;

The sharana's experience of god is the sole cure of worldliness; - Lord Kudala Sangamadeva

ullavaru shivalaya maaduvaru naanena maadali badavanayya,
enna kaale kamba dehave degula shirave honna kalashavayya
Koodala Sangama Deva kelayya sthavarakkalivuntu jangamakalivilla

transliterated as
The rich will make temples for Shiva. What shall I, a poor man, do?
My legs are pillars, The body the shrine, The head a cupola of gold.
Listen, O lord of the meeting rivers, Things standing shall fall, But the moving ever shall stay.

The Lord of meeting rivers - his insignia of all his vachanas - Kudalasangamadeva in Kannada.