Summary
In this vachana, Basavanna shows a life worn down by daily anxiety. The repeated concern, “How today? How tomorrow?” burns through the body’s burden, and samsara passes in that struggle.
He then looks backward and forward. Looking back, he has no shame or reflection that he has come through many wombs and births. Looking forward, he has not found the right resolve or way toward liberation. The past has not awakened him, and the future has not been directed toward Mukti.
The cause is forgetfulness. Sadashiva has not been remembered without break. Because that remembrance has failed, Māyā has consumed him. Before Kudalasangama Deva, Basavanna confesses that life is lost when daily concern takes the place of ceaseless remembrance.
Imagery & Symbolic Relevance
The repeated question, “How today? How tomorrow?” shows a mind held by immediate need and future worry. It is not one passing concern, but a continuing pattern that carries life forward without inward awakening.
The burning body carries the burden of survival. Basavanna does not deny the body’s need, but he shows how the body’s burden can consume the span of life. When this becomes central, remembrance is displaced.
The reference to many wombs and births brings the past before the seeker. Such repeated birth should lead to shame, seriousness, or awakening, but Basavanna says this has not happened.
The absence of right resolve toward liberation brings the future into view. Samsara has passed in bodily concern, yet the movement toward Mukti has not been rightly taken up.
The remembrance of Sadashiva is the central spiritual concern. Basavanna does not speak of occasional remembrance, but of remembrance without lapse. When that continuity is absent, Māyā prevails.
Māyā devouring the seeker is the final image. It consumes not only through visible temptation, but through neglect, anxiety, bodily absorption, and the failure to remain turned toward Sadashiva.
Lingayoga
In Lingayoga, this vachana teaches the necessity of unbroken remembrance. The body may require care, but life cannot be reduced to the care of the body.
The danger shown here is forgetfulness hidden inside ordinary living. “Today” and “tomorrow” become powerful when they occupy the place of Kudalasangama Deva. The seeker is therefore called back to steady remembrance, so that samsara does not pass unnoticed.
Editorial Commentary
The force of this vachana rests on the contrast between daily anxiety and ceaseless remembrance. “Today” and “tomorrow” are not merely calendar words; they show the mind caught in repeated concern for bodily maintenance. “Māyā” here is not explained through a new image, but through its action in the vachana: it consumes when remembrance of Sadashiva breaks. The key correction is therefore continuous remembrance before Kudalasangama Deva.
Related Vachana
Supporting Vachana
Prasadi Sthala Vachana 983 — The Rudrakshi as the Path of Liberation
Prasadi Vachana 983 supports this vachana by showing the positive means toward Mukti. There, Rudrakshi is praised as purification, practice, attainment, destruction of sin, and the means for liberation. Vachana 17 shows the danger of a life passing without ceaseless remembrance of Sadashiva. Vachana 983 supports it by showing that the seeker must be held in remembrance and directed toward Mukti through a sacred means received in grace.
Advancing Vachana
Sharana Sthala Vachana 5 — The Eye-Opening Conduct
Sharana Vachana 5 advances this teaching by showing how forgetfulness is corrected through opened seeing. In Vachana 17, Basavanna has not reflected on past births, has not turned rightly toward liberation, and has been consumed by Māyā through broken remembrance. In Vachana 5, seeing the conduct of Kudalasangama Deva’s Sharana opens the inner eye. Thus the Pranalingi confession of forgetfulness advances into Sharana Sthala as awakened seeing through the lived conduct of the Sharana.
