Summary
Basavanna questions the need to seek a bodily mark as proof that the realized state has been reached. The rainbow does not join the sky from elsewhere or enter into another substance; it appears within the very expanse from which it arises.
In the same way, the sign received from Prabhudeva stands in Kudalasangama Deva without difference. The body remains, but it does not stand as an independent source or claimant; it bears the revealed sign.
Imagery & Symbolic Relevance
The opening question concerns the body and its mark. Basavanna asks why there should remain a notion that the body must bear some separate sign declaring, “I have come.” The realized condition does not require an external credential through which the body proves itself.
The rainbow is the governing image. It appears visibly within the sky or cloud, yet it has not travelled from elsewhere to join it. Nor has it entered into some second substance. Its appearance remains dependent upon the very expanse in which it is seen.
The phrase describing it as the shadow or appearance of its own form prevents the rainbow from being treated as an independently existing object. It is visible and recognizable, but it does not possess a separate ground.
Basavanna applies this image to the suluhu received from Prabhudeva. Suluhu means a sign, clue, distinguishing indication, or recognizable mark. The sign is received through Prabhudeva, but it does not remain as a possession separate from Kudalasangama Deva.
The statement that the sign stands in Kudalasangama Deva “without difference” gives the Aikya force of the vachana. The revealed sign and its Divine ground are not held as two independent realities.
The body remains present. The vachana does not claim that the body disappears. Its standing has changed: it no longer claims to be the source of the realization, but remains as the bearer of the sign revealed through Prabhudeva.
Lingayoga
In Lingayoga, the body must not be used to display or certify spiritual attainment. A bodily mark, sacred sign, or received indication fulfils its meaning only when it remains inseparable from the Linga to which it points.
The practitioner must therefore avoid turning the sign into personal possession. The body bears what has been revealed, while the source and authority of that revelation remain in Kudalasangama Deva.
The movement is from received sign to non-difference: what is revealed through the realized Sharana must settle completely in the Divine ground rather than create a second spiritual identity.
Editorial Commentary
Prabhudeva refers here to Allama Prabhudeva, from whom the suluhu is received. Kudalasangama Deva remains Basavanna’s Lord and the Divine ground in whom that sign stands without difference.
The vachana does not simply identify the physical body with Kudalasangama Deva. It states more precisely that the body remains bearing the sign, while that sign has no independent standing apart from the Lord.
The rainbow comparison must also remain restrained. Its function is to show visible manifestation without a separate source; it does not require an expanded cosmological or subtle-body interpretation.
Related Vachana
Supporting Vachana
Sharana Sthala Vachana 1360 — O My Supreme Guru
In Sharana Vachana 1360, Basavanna refuses to make a premature claim. Although he may say that he has grasped the Sign, it has not yet become firmly established in his hand. Although he may speak of entering union, the completion of that state remains beyond him. Recognizing ego as the obstruction, he calls upon the Supreme Guru and stands as an unknowing child before Kudalasangama Deva.
This prepares Vachana 1143 directly. In the Sharana vachana, the Sign has been received but has not yet become fully established, and Basavanna refuses to confuse nearness with completion. In Aikya Vachana 1143, that uncertainty has ended: the sign received through Prabhudeva stands in Kudalasangama Deva without difference, and the body remains only as its bearer.
Advancing Vachana
Aikya Sthala Vachana 1334 — Who Showed Me That Linga and Jangama Are One?
Aikya Vachana 1334 declares that Linga is Jangama and Jangama is Linga. Worship of Linga while retaining separation did not remove bhava. Jangama therefore came as Mukhalinga—the living-faced Linga—gave instruction and protection, revealed Basavanna’s beginning and beginningless nature, and established that Pranalinga itself is Jangama.
Vachana 1143 establishes that the sign received through Prabhudeva does not stand apart from Kudalasangama Deva. Vachana 1334 carries this recognition further by revealing the sacred relation underlying that non-difference: the living Jangama is not separate from Linga.
The movement is exact. In Vachana 1143, the sign revealed through the realized Sharana is known as inseparable from its Divine source. In Vachana 1334, that relation becomes explicit as Linga–Jangama unity, where even Pranalinga is established as Jangama. What first appears as sign and source without difference deepens into the living recognition that Linga and Jangama are one.
