Koogina Maarayya (ಕೂಗಿನ ಮಾರಯ್ಯ)

A stone may be polished to shine bright.
Can one polish the wave of brightness of a gemstone?
Only the worldly person has passions and hatred.
A true lingaangi whose mind stays in Mahat
how can he be bothered by duality?
Mahaamahima Maareshwara dwells with such a one. [Vachana No.1627] ^[1]

Koogina Maarayya followed the occupation of making people vigilant and alert. He had the responsibility of protecting the sharanas at the time of the revolution in Kalyaana. As such he would stand at a high place and warn the devotees about the arrival of the soldiers of Bijjala. He died at Muragod being caught in the clash between the devotees and the soldiers of Bijjala. His 11 vachanas have Mahaamahima Maareshwara as his signature. He speaks about shatsthala and the quality of a real devotee.

As the string and stick did bend together
there was scope for the arrow to move.
As bhakti and virakti got united
it was possible to became the body that knows the Thing.
The Thing, when it once pierced the three qualities
those three qualities are destroyed.
In that destruction five organs were undone,
seven elements, and eightfold arrogance,
sixteen services, twenty five principles, and feelings were no more.
The smell of caste which resides in all this had lost its way.
Once it is understood who I am the cry of caste is no more
as one knows Mahaamahima Maareshwara. [Vachana No.1626] ^[1]