A Spiritual Aspirant    

In the last chapter we saw how his intellect came to grips with the society of his time. The second battle took place in the inner world. B was a devotee and his vachanas are a great commentary on his spiritual conflicts that every sadhaka has to face on his spiritual journey. They tell us about his spiritual evolution and his unceasing efforts to reach God and become one with him.

B was aware of his shortcomings and criticized himself too. B tried hard to teach his mind love of God but! He wept and cried because he found it difficult to concentrate his mind on God. Many compositions show how hard he tried to keep himself mentally pure. He believed that chanting of the Vedas could not please God but bhakti could. Bhakti according to the Narada bhaktisutras is undying love for God. It is continuos and single-minded yearning and craving for the mercy of the indefinite. God’s grace descends upon a person who prays with love and loves Him wholeheartedly.

God’s silence was a mystery to B and wondered whether he would ever see him. He got depressed sometimes. Inspite he did not loose hope and consoled himself with the thought that God was testing his devotion. The conflict, the despair and the ray of hope that streaked through the despair – all these made him cling to Shiva’s feet more and more. To B Shiva was the God supreme.

B was not only a spiritual aspirant but also an intellectual who was involved in social and religious affairs. Each force was pulling him in an opposite direction. Out of this agony of darkness came Divine Light. God Shiva responded. B was surprised to find God within himself. Seeing God was great happiness and union with him was a great ecstasy.

It is necessary to have an idea of the spiritual evolution as experienced and expressed by the Virashaiva mystics. The evolution, according to them takes place in six stages i.e.
1. Bhakta – at this stage the devotee is the servant of the master and here begins his spiritual apprenticeship.
2. Maheshwara – at the stage, the devotee is not prepared to recognize any other God except his won.
3. Prasada – the divine grace begin to descend slowly on the aspirant and sense of hope fills his mind.
4. Pranalingi – the devotee, all the while, thinks of God as residing in the ishta-linga which he keeps on his palm during meditation. But, at this stage, the devotee experiences that God resides within himself also.
5. Sharana – there is a complete surrendering of one’s will to God. There is a slow extinction of personality.
6. Aikya – at this stage, the devotee who had a separate entity loses it and becomes God Himself.

The first stage was I am his servant. The final stage is soham “I am He”. These six stages are based on the actual experiences of saints like B and his collages during their sadhana. It is pertinent to note that the vachanas of B and others were arranged, codified by anthropologists according to these six stages.

When praised, he was humility personified. He called himself a servant of society. He was against violence in any form – in speech and in action. Many miracles were attributed to him but the fact that he was able to bring about a revolution in the thinking of the people is a great miracle.