Summary
In this vachana, Basavanna uses the image of iron touched by parasu. Once iron receives the transforming touch, it does not remain iron. The image establishes the central teaching: true contact changes the nature of what is touched.
Basavanna then applies the same principle to Linga. After being touched by the Linga, conduct cannot remain low, crooked, or defective. The touch of Linga is not an ornament added to the seeker; it must alter the way life is lived.
The final line completes the teaching. The Sharanas of Kudalasangama Deva do not know another. Their movement is no longer divided. Once transformed, they do not return to the former condition or seek another way.
Imagery & Symbolic Relevance
The first image is iron touched by parasu. Iron represents the former condition: hard, ordinary, and untransformed. Parasu signifies the transforming contact through which the iron no longer remains what it was.
The force of the image lies in irreversibility. Basavanna does not say that iron appears different, is decorated, or is temporarily altered. He says it does not remain iron. The change is not superficial.
The second image is Linga-touch. When the Linga touches the seeker, conduct must change. Basavanna’s concern is not an outward sign alone, but the condition of living after sacred contact. If conduct remains small or corrupt, the meaning of Linga-touch has not been fulfilled.
The third movement is the Sharana who knows no other. This shows settled direction. The Sharana does not alternate between Linga and another dependence. The transformed one belongs wholly to Kudalasangama Deva.
Lingayoga
In Lingayoga, this vachana shows that sacred contact must become lived transformation. Linga is not merely held, named, or worshipped outwardly. Its touch must enter conduct.
For Prasadi Sthala, the relevance lies in receiving Linga-touch rightly. The seeker does not receive the Linga as possession or identity. He receives it as transforming contact. When received truly, it changes conduct and removes divided allegiance.
Editorial Commentary
This vachana should be read as a test of authenticity. Basavanna does not ask whether the seeker has come near the Linga outwardly. He asks whether the touch has transformed the seeker’s conduct.
The parasu image protects the teaching from mere appearance. Iron touched by true alchemy cannot remain iron. Likewise, one touched by Linga cannot continue in defective conduct and still claim transformation. The Sharana’s proof is not declaration, but undivided living before Kudalasangama Deva.
Related Vachana
Supporting Vachana
Maheshwara Sthala Vachana 235 — The Constitution of a Pure Life
Maheshwara Vachana 235 supports this vachana by showing what transformed conduct must look like. In Vachana 137, Basavanna says that after the touch of Linga, conduct cannot remain defective. In Maheshwara Vachana 235, he defines the way that pleases Kudalasangama Deva through inner and outer purity: not stealing, not killing, not wounding through speech, not burning with anger, not praising oneself, and not diminishing another. The support is direct: Linga-touch must become purity in conduct.
Advancing Vachana
Pranalingi Sthala Vachana 962 — One Cannot Bow to the Fixed Idol Once the Living Linga Is Realized
Pranalingi Vachana 962 advances this movement by carrying irreversible transformation into the realized inward state. In Vachana 137, the one touched by Linga does not return to defective conduct, and the Sharanas of Kudalasangama Deva know no other. In Vachana 962, once the living Linga is realized inwardly, divided outward seeking becomes a fall from that realization. Thus the Prasadi teaching of transformed conduct advances into Pranalingi as the point of no return, where the realized one cannot seek elsewhere after knowing Kudalasangama Deva within.
