Poetic Rendering
Let them not call me corrupt or impure, O Lord.
Let them call me one intoxicated with the Linga,
mad with love for the Jangama.
Let them not accuse me of crafting excuses
and disguising selfish aims as devotion.
Instead, let them proclaim,
“He belongs wholly to You.”
This alone I ask
held in Your grace, O Kudalasangama!
This vachana articulates Basavanna’s profound principle of inversion, where worldly accusations lose meaning when the inner orientation is rooted in the divine. Basavanna does not seek a reputation for virtue but for belonging belonging to Shiva. The true danger, he suggests, is not being misunderstood by the world but being inwardly false to the divine. When one’s devotion to the Linga and the Jangama becomes a consuming force, ordinary social labels collapse. Basavanna asks only for the identity that emerges from grace: not the external badge of piety, but the inner certitude of being claimed by Kudalasangama. In this reversal, what the world might call madness becomes illumination, and what the world might call propriety becomes spiritual obstruction.
Spiritual Context
Core Spiritual Principle: The highest spiritual attainment is to have one’s individual identity completely dissolved and re-contextualized within the Divine. Worldly labels of “pure/impure,” “sane/mad” become irrelevant when the soul’s only reality is its relationship with God. The seeker’s ultimate prayer is to be so transparent to the divine will that their life becomes a mere extension of it.
Cosmic Reality Perspective: From the non-dual standpoint, the separate self (Anga) is the primary illusion. Basavanna’s prayer is for the acceleration of this illusion’s dissolution. To be “called” God’s own is the social and psychological correlate of the metaphysical truth of Aikya (union). The “madness” of such devotion is simply the logical state of a part that has realized it is the Whole.
Historical Reality (Anubhava Mantapa Context): The Sharanas were often accused by orthodox society of being corrupt (for rejecting caste) and mad (for their ecstatic, unconventional devotion). This vachana is a defiant re-framing of these accusations. It declares that what society sees as corruption is actually purity of divine love, and what it sees as madness is the only true sanity.
Interpretation
“Let them not call me corrupt or impure…”: Basavanna begins by rejecting the negative labels imposed by a society obsessed with ritual purity. He is indifferent to this framework of judgment because he operates in a different reality.
“Let them call me one intoxicated with the Linga, mad with love for the Jangama.”: This is the active request for a new identity. “Intoxicated with the Linga” signifies the inner, ecstatic union with the Divine core. “Mad with love for the Jangama” signifies the outer, expressive love for the divine manifest in the world and the community. This is the complete picture of a devotee: God-intoxicated within, God-manifest-serving without.
“Let them not accuse me of… disguising selfish aims as devotion.”: This addresses the most subtle spiritual danger: hypocrisy. Basavanna prays to be protected from self-deception, asking that his devotion be so genuine that even his critics cannot accuse him of ulterior motives.
“Instead, let them proclaim, ‘He belongs wholly to You.'”: This is the culmination. The desired reputation is not one of personal holiness, but of divine ownership. The self is erased; only the relationship remains. This is the most profound form of surrender.
Practical Implications: For a Lingayogi, the goal is to live in such a way that one’s life points not to oneself, but to the Divine. The measure of a spiritual life is not personal acclaim, but the degree to which one becomes a clear signpost to Koodalasangamadeva.
The Cosmic Reality
Anga (Human Dimension): The individual ego that is willingly offered as a sacrifice, desiring to be consumed by the fire of divine love until only its allegiance to the Linga remains.
Linga (Divine Principle): The supreme reality that “claims” the devotee, becoming the sole source of their identity and worth.
Jangama (Dynamic Interaction): The process of being visibly transformed by this love. It is the “madness” and “intoxication” that bears witness to the world of the Anga’s total absorption in the Linga.
Shata Sthala
Primary Sthala: Bhakta The emotional fervor, the desire for a personal relationship with God, and the plea to be known as God’s own are the hallmark of the Bhakta stage in its most intense expression.
Supporting Sthala: Aikya The content of the plea “belong wholly to You” is the essence of the non-dual Aikya stage. The Bhakta’s love is the path that leads to the Jnani’s union.
Practical Integration
Arivu (Awareness Practices): Contemplate the question: “Who am I without my name, my job, my reputation?” Strip away all labels until only the silent, loving presence of the Ishtalinga remains. Seek to identify with that presence alone.
Achara (Personal Discipline): Practice acting without concern for personal credit or blame. Perform your duties as an offering, and let the results belong to God. Become indifferent to praise and criticism, seeing both as commentary on the Divine’s work through you.
Kayaka (Sacred Action): Let your work be so infused with selfless intention that it becomes a testament to your “madness” for the Divine. Work not for profit or fame, but as an act of love for the Jangama (the community and the world).
Dasoha (Communal Offering): In the community, celebrate those who are “intoxicated with the Linga” those whose love for God is visibly transformative. Value this divine madness over conventional success or piety.
Modern Application
We live in an age of personal branding, where our identity is a carefully curated product designed for social media consumption. We are obsessed with how we are perceived our reputation, our “likes,” our status. This creates immense anxiety and a fragile, externalized sense of self.
This vachana offers the ultimate freedom from the prison of personal branding. It liberates us from the tyranny of public opinion and the exhausting task of self-justification. It invites us to transfer the burden of our identity to the Divine, to find our worth not in what people say about us, but in the unshakable fact of our belonging to God. This is the path to authentic, fearless living.
Essence
Let my name be forgotten.
Let my story be erased.
Let the only tale they tell of me
be that I was so consumed by You,
that even my ashes bore Your signature.
The individual self is a localized, high-density information pattern (the ego). The process of devotion is a process of data erasure and reformatting. Basavanna’s prayer is for this process to be so complete that the original data (the personal identity) is entirely overwritten by a single, new data point: “Belongs to Koodalasangamadeva.” The “madness” is the system’s behavior during this radical rewrite, which appears chaotic from the perspective of the old operating system (worldly logic).
Imagine a document filled with a person’s life story their achievements, failures, and reputation. Basavanna is asking for a divine editor to delete all the text and stamp a single, luminous watermark across every page: “PROPERTY OF GOD.” The document is still there, but its entire meaning is transformed. It is no longer a story about a person; it is a document of divine ownership.
We deeply fear being nobody, being forgotten, being without an identity. This vachana speaks directly to that fear and transforms it. It reveals that our deepest security and most glorious identity are found not in building a monument to the self, but in surrendering the self to the Eternal. It is in becoming “nothing” that we become part of “Everything.”
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