Summary
In this vachana, Basavanna speaks from the exhaustion of effort. The legs grow weary from wandering, the eyes from seeing, and the tongue from singing. Yet even after this, he says, “Not enough, not enough.”
He then turns to worship. The hands have performed worship before Kudalasangama Deva, yet the mind has not found rest. The body and senses have acted, but the inward being remains unfilled.
The final prayer gives the center of the vachana. Basavanna asks Kudalasangama Deva to hear him before the body gives way. The teaching is that outward movement, seeing, singing, and worship are not complete unless the mind is inwardly filled and brought to rest.
Imagery & Symbolic Relevance
The weary legs are the first image. They show the limit of outward movement. The seeker may wander, seek, and approach sacred places, yet movement alone does not complete the inner need.
The weary eyes are the second image. Seeing has taken place, but sight itself has not brought final rest. Basavanna distinguishes between seeing outwardly and being inwardly fulfilled.
The weary tongue is the third image. The tongue has sung, praised, and spoken, yet speech has not become enough. Sacred utterance remains incomplete when the mind is still unsettled.
The hands performing worship form the fourth image. Worship is not dismissed, but Basavanna shows that the act of worship must reach the mind. If the hands worship and the mind remains unsatisfied, the practice has not yet flowered inwardly.
The repeated phrase “not enough, not enough” is the pulse of the vachana. It does not reject practice. It reveals that practice must become inner completion.
The final image is the body giving way. Basavanna recognizes the urgency of embodied life. Before this bodily opportunity passes, he asks Kudalasangama Deva to fill the inner being.
Lingayoga
In Lingayoga, this vachana teaches that practice must move from outer exertion to inward absorption. Walking, seeing, singing, and worshipping are sacred only when they lead toward inner rest.
For Pranalingi Sthala, the mind’s unrest is decisive. The Linga must not remain only before the senses or in the action of the hands. It must enter the inward life as fullness.
The practice-point is clear: the seeker should not measure spiritual completion by the amount of movement, sight, song, or ritual performed. Completion comes when Kudalasangama Deva fills the inner being and the mind finds rest.
Editorial Commentary
The repeated “not enough” should be preserved. It is not complaint for its own sake, but a confession that outer devotion has not yet become inward fulfillment.
The faculties named in the vachana—legs, eyes, tongue, and hands—show the whole embodied field of practice. Basavanna’s concern is not that these are useless, but that they remain insufficient without inner filling.
The final urgency should also be kept. The prayer is made before the body gives way; realization must become living fullness while embodiment still remains.
Related Vachana
Supporting Vachana
Prasadi Sthala Vachana 853 — The Flood of Love
Prasadi Vachana 853 supports this vachana by showing the state in which the faculties are filled beyond ordinary outward movement. There, when the eyes are filled, they do not see; when the ears are filled, they do not hear; when the hands are filled, they do not worship; when the mind is filled, it does not remember in the ordinary way.
Vachana 487 stands before that fullness. The legs, eyes, tongue, and hands have acted, but the mind has not found rest. Vachana 853 supports it by showing what Basavanna seeks: the inward filling in which the faculties no longer remain restless or incomplete before Mahanta Kudalasangama Deva.
Advancing Vachana
Sharana Sthala Vachana 1390 — Beyond the Conflict of Form and Formless
Sharana Vachana 1390 advances this teaching by carrying exhaustion into settled devotion. In Vachana 487, Basavanna says that wandering, seeing, singing, and worshipping are still not enough while the mind remains unfilled. In Vachana 1390, he confesses that seeking the formless apart from form made him wander and become weary, and he asks when true devotion will become steady.
Thus the Pranalingi cry of “not enough” advances into Sharana Sthala as the release of divided seeking. The seeker no longer asks for more outward exertion, but for the steady ground of true devotion in Kudalasangama Deva.
