Poetic Rendering
Your remembrance is my sunrise,
Your forgetting my falling dusk.
Your memory is my very life,
Your memory my breath itself, O Father.
Press Your sacred footprint
deep into the chamber of my heart;
and carve the six syllabled mantra
“Om Namaha Shivaya”
upon my trembling lips,
O Koodalasangamadeva.
This vachana reveals that the true rhythm of life is shaped by divine remembrance. When Basavanna remembers the Lord, it is dawn; when he forgets, it becomes dusk. God’s memory is his true breath and source of life. He prays for the Lord’s presence to be permanently impressed within his heart and for the sacred mantra “Om Namaha Shivaya” to be etched upon his lips. The vachana teaches that spiritual maturity is attained when remembrance becomes constant, effortless, and becomes the very breath of one’s being.
Spiritual Context
Core Spiritual Principle: The ultimate spiritual practice is smarana constant remembrance of the Divine. This remembrance is not an occasional activity but the very source of life, light, and consciousness for the devotee. The goal is to make this remembrance as natural and involuntary as breathing.
Cosmic Reality Perspective: The Divine (Linga) is the source of all light and life. In the microcosm of the individual, the act of remembering God aligns the soul with this cosmic source, making it a conduit for divine energy (“sunrise”). Forgetting plunges the individual back into the darkness of separateness (“dusk”). The mantra Om Namaha Shivaya is not just a phrase but a potent sound vibration (shabda brahman) that encapsulates the essence of the Divine and has the power to restructure consciousness.
Historical Reality (Anubhava Mantapa Context): This Vachana elevates the practice of japa (mantra repetition) and mindfulness from a ritual to the very center of spiritual life. For a movement that rejected complex external rituals, Basavanna provides the ultimate internalized practice: the constant, heartfelt remembrance of God. This made deep spirituality accessible to every householder, regardless of their daily duties, as it could be practiced within the heart and mind at all times.
Interpretation
1. “Your remembrance is my sunrise, Your forgetting my falling dusk.” Basavanna uses the most fundamental natural cycle to describe his inner state. Remembrance brings illumination, clarity, and the energy of a new beginning. Forgetting brings confusion, inertia, and a sense of ending. This shows that his psychological and spiritual well being is entirely dependent on his connection to the Divine.
2. “Your memory is my very life, Your memory my breath itself, O Father.” This intensifies the metaphor. Remembrance is not just like life; it is his life. It is not just like breath; it is his breath. This signifies a state where the distinction between the devotee and the object of devotion begins to dissolve. The act of remembering God becomes synonymous with the act of being alive.
3. “Press Your sacred footprint deep into the chamber of my heart…” This is a prayer for a permanent, indelible impression of the Divine. The “sacred footprint” symbolizes the Lord’s presence, grace, and guiding path. Basavanna asks for this to be not just a superficial mark, but a deep impression in the very “chamber of his heart” the core of his emotional and spiritual being.
4. “…and carve the six syllabled mantra ‘Om Namaha Shivaya’ upon my trembling lips…” This is the prayer for external expression to match the internal state. The lips “tremble” with the intensity of devotion and the fragility of human effort. He asks for the mantra to be “carved” upon them, meaning he wants its recitation to be spontaneous, constant, and an unwavering feature of his existence, much like the deep impression in his heart.
Practical Implications: The seeker is guided to: Strive to make the remembrance of God the central, continuous thread of their consciousness. Use a sacred mantra (like Om Namaha Shivaya) as a tool to anchor the mind in divine remembrance. Pray for grace to make this practice not a forced effort, but a natural, indelible part of their being.
The Cosmic Reality
Anga (Human Dimension): The Anga is the heart and the lips the entire psycho physical apparatus that is being reconfigured to serve as a permanent instrument of divine remembrance.
Linga (Divine Principle): The Linga is the “sacred footprint” and the “mantra” the tangible, accessible forms of the divine that can be imprinted upon the human soul.
Jangama (Dynamic Interaction): The Jangama is the process of “pressing” and “carving” the flow of grace that transforms the Anga, and the resulting unceasing flow of remembrance (smarana) that then characterizes the devotee’s life.
Shata Sthala
Primary Sthala: Pranalingi Sthala. This Vachana is a perfect description of this stage, where the Linga is no longer an external object of worship but has been internalized as the very life force (prana) and constant mental activity of the seeker.
Supporting Sthala: Bhakta Sthala is where the practice of remembrance is cultivated. Aikya Sthala is the culmination where the remembrancer, the act of remembrance, and the Remembered become one.
Practical Integration
Arivu (Awareness Practices): Mantra Japa Meditation: Practice silent or audible repetition of Om Namaha Shivaya, feeling it as a vibration being carved into your awareness. Coordinate it with the breath, making it your “mental breath.”
Heart Centered Contemplation: Meditate on the “sacred footprint” being impressed upon your heart. Feel it as a source of warmth, peace, and unwavering presence throughout your day.
Achara (Personal Discipline): Use mundane activities as triggers for remembrance. Let the sunrise remind you of God’s light, and your next breath remind you that God is your life.
Kayaka (Sacred Action): Perform all work as an extension of the mantra. Let the rhythm of your labor be a physical expression of the inner repetition of the divine name.
Dasoha (Communal Offering): Share the power of constant remembrance with the community. Create group chanting sessions (bhajans) and encourage each other to make the divine name the foundation of daily life.
Modern Application
“Distraction and Spiritual Amnesia.” The modern mind is fragmented by constant notifications, information overload, and multitasking. This leads to an inability to focus and a state of perpetual forgetfulness of our deeper, spiritual nature.
The Liberative Application: This Vachana offers a powerful antidote to the age of distraction. The practice of smarana is a method to retrain the mind for single pointed focus on what is truly meaningful. It turns the constant stream of mental noise into a stream of divine remembrance, transforming anxiety into peace and fragmentation into unified awareness.
Essence
Without remembering You, I am a body without a soul,
a sky without a sun, a breath that does not reach the lungs.
Stamp Your name on my heart so deeply
that even if my mind wanders, my core cannot forget.
Engrave Your name on my lips so permanently
that even my silence is a perfect pronunciation of Your being.
This Vachana presents a spiritual technology of identity transformation based on vibrational metaphysics. The mantra Om Namaha Shivaya is not a mere phrase but the primordial sonic architecture of reality (Shabda Brahman). Its six syllables are a precise vibrational code that corresponds to the six chakras, from the base to the third eye, with the silent pause after the chant representing the crown, the thousand petalled lotus of Sahasrara.
Om: The seed vibration of the cosmos, the unmanifest becoming sound, aligning the seeker with the causal plane. Na Ma Shi Va Ya: A descending and ascending frequency that purifies the elemental states (earth, water, fire, air, ether) within the human system, dissolving the pancha kleshas (five afflictions) and reintegrating the individual soul (jiva) with the Supreme Consciousness (Shiva).
The prayer to have this mantra “carved” upon the lips and its essence “pressed” into the heart is a request for this divine frequency to overwrite the ego’s karmic imprint (samskara). Its multidimensional impact is to entrain the seeker’s entire being physical vibration, vital energy, mental field, and causal body to the resonant frequency of the Linga, creating a state of perpetual, non conceptual remembrance where the chanter, the chant, and the Chanted are experienced as one unified vibrational field. It positions the Jangama as this state of resonant unity a human existence that has become a stable, living antenna for the divine signal, broadcasting the silent, potent frequency of Om Namaha Shivaya through every thought, word, and deed.
Your consciousness is a field of vibration. What you repeatedly resonate with, you become. The name of God is not a word but a living frequency that can recalibrate your entire being from separation to unity. Do not just say the mantra; become the vibration. Let Om Namaha Shivaya resonate in your heart, hum in your cells, and silence your mind, until your very life becomes an echo of the one, eternal Sound. In this sacred resonance, you will discover that you have always been a note in the divine symphony.
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