Summary
When six crore Brahmās pass away, only one day has passed for Nārāyaṇa. When one crore Nārāyaṇas pass away, Rudra’s eye has merely blinked.
Basavanna then places even the many manifestations of Rudra within passing and asks what can be known or said of Kudalasangama Deva.
The vachana uses increasingly vast measures to show that every calculable duration becomes small before Him.
Imagery & Symbolic Relevance
The passing of six crore Brahmās gives the first measure. What appears immeasurably long from the standpoint of Brahmā becomes only one day for Nārāyaṇa.
The one day of Nārāyaṇa immediately reduces the first vast duration. Basavanna does not allow the mind to settle upon Brahmā’s scale as final.
The second line enlarges the measure again. When one crore Nārāyaṇas pass away, Rudra’s eye has only blinked.
The blink of Rudra’s eye is the sharpest image in the sequence. An expanse beyond ordinary calculation becomes only a momentary movement of the eyelid.
Basavanna then speaks of many Rudra manifestations passing away. Rudra, who supplied the greater measure in the preceding line, is himself placed within succession and ending.
The final question—“What can one know or say of Kudalasangama Deva?” breaks the chain of comparison. No further figure, lifespan, or cosmic being is offered as His measure.
The vachana therefore moves through Brahmā, Nārāyaṇa, and Rudra only to reveal the inadequacy of every scale before Kudalasangama Deva.
Lingayoga
In Lingayoga, the seeker must not try to understand the Linga merely by enlarging time, number, status, or cosmic magnitude.
Even the greatest imaginable durations remain within measurement. Kudalasangama Deva cannot be reached by extending calculation.
The vachana also corrects fascination with exalted forms. Brahmā, Nārāyaṇa, and Rudra are all placed within passage; none becomes the final measure of the Linga.
The practice-point is direct: allow comparison and calculation to reach their limit, and remain humble before what cannot be contained by them.
Editorial Commentary
The opening number is six crore Brahmās, not simply one crore.
The cosmic durations should not be treated as a scientific chronology. Their function in the vachana is comparative: each apparently immense measure becomes brief from the next standpoint.
The final question should remain open. Basavanna does not replace Rudra’s measure with a still larger number for Kudalasangama Deva; he shows that measurement itself has failed.
Related Vachana
Sharana Sthala Vachana 392 — The Humility of Insignificance
Sharana Vachana 392 names nine crore Brahmās, ten crore Nārāyaṇas, and endless Rudras, but Basavanna refuses to claim the power to dissolve them. He does not present himself as possessing cosmic authority and instead takes refuge in Anubhaya Linga-Jangama.
This directly prepares Vachana 540. Sharana Vachana 392 establishes humility before immense cosmic powers; Aikya Vachana 540 shows that even those powers and their durations cannot measure Kudalasangama Deva.
Advancing Vachana
Aikya Sthala Vachana 541 — I Found Nothing Else
Vachana 540 exhausts numerical and cosmic comparison. Brahmā, Nārāyaṇa, and Rudra all remain within passing time, while Kudalasangama Deva cannot be measured through them.
Vachana 541 carries this further through direct searching across ages, dissolutions, arising and fading, and the many gods spoken of. After that search, Basavanna finds nothing apart from Kudalasangama Deva.
Thus, the failure of measurement in Vachana 540 advances into the exhaustion of searching itself in Vachana 541.
