GLOSSARY OF KEY TERMS
IN THE SIX SHATSTHALA VOLUMES
Bhakta – Maheshwara – Prasadi – Pranalingi – Sharana – Aikya
Scope and Use
This glossary defines the principal Kannada, Sanskrit, Lingayoga, ethical, devotional, social, and metaphysical terms used across the six completed Shatsthala volumes. Definitions follow their usage in the Vachanas and the accompanying explanations; where a term has more than one sense, the immediate Vachana remains the governing context.
Searchable spellings are used as headings, with variants noted only where they aid recognition. The original Kannada remains primary. The six Sthalas are movements of spiritual ripening, not ranks, honours, or permanent identities.
Alphabetical Glossary
A
Abhimana – Self-regard, pride, honour, or personal attachment, according to context. It becomes binding when identity or possession is defended through the claim of self.
Achara – Right conduct or lived discipline. In this work, Achara is the outwardly visible form of awakened awareness; it tests whether devotion, knowledge, speech, work, worship, and relationship agree with truth.
Adharma – Conduct contrary to truth, compassion, justice, and right relation. It is not corrected merely by ritual appearance; it must be removed through truthful conduct and responsibility.
Adi – Beginning, origin, or first principle, according to context. It is often paired with Anadi or used to show that Kudalasangama Deva exceeds temporal beginning.
Advaita – Non-duality or the recognition that reality is not divided into independently existing parts. Basavanna tests Advaita by asking whether inward non-division becomes outward Dasoha, compassion, and shared life.
Agama – A transmitted sacred or doctrinal tradition. The Vachanas may refer to Agama respectfully while also showing that no text or system can replace direct recognition of Linga.
Agamya – That which cannot be reached by ordinary approach, reasoning, or external means. The word points to the limit of conceptual and ritual access before Kudalasangama Deva.
Agochara – Beyond the range of ordinary sense-perception or mental grasp. It does not mean unreal; it indicates that the Divine cannot be reduced to an object of the senses.
Aham-bhava – The separately asserted sense of “I” that claims ownership, merit, knowledge, action, or spiritual attainment. Its ending does not destroy embodied life; it removes egoic self-claim.
Ahankara – Ego, self-importance, or the tendency to make the separate self the centre and owner of action. The Vachanas expose it in learning, worship, giving, lineage, and spiritual identity.
Ahimsa – Non-harm. Although the exact Sanskrit term is not required in every Vachana, the principle is present in Basavanna’s commands not to kill, injure, humiliate, or cause suffering.
Aikya – The sixth Sthala and the fulfilment of the sixfold path in non-separation. Distinctions such as seeker and sought, giver and receiver, Anga and Linga, or knower and known cease to govern experience, while life and service may continue.
Anadi – Beginningless. It indicates that the reality or condition described is not produced at a particular moment in time.
Anahata – The unstruck or inward sound, where the term occurs. It should not be expanded into a complete technical system unless the particular Vachana clearly requires it.
Anga – The embodied field of the seeker: body, mind, senses, speech, awareness, action, and individual identity. Anga is not rejected; it is the field in which Linga is remembered, served, and realised.
Anga-Linga – The living relation between the embodied seeker and Divine presence. The path begins as Anga turning toward Linga and matures until their separation no longer governs awareness.
Antaranga – The inward field of intention, feeling, awareness, memory, and motive. Basavanna refuses a split in which outward purity hides inward contradiction.
Antaranga-shuddhi – Inner purity. It includes truthful intention, restraint of anger, humility, non-harm, and freedom from falsehood and self-praise.
Anubhava – Direct lived realisation. It is not borrowed information, discussion, memory, or verbal knowledge; Arivu is fulfilled when it becomes Anubhava.
Anugraha – Grace, revelation, fearlessness, and release. Grace does not function as a purchased reward; it transforms relation and loosens possessive self-claim.
Apasmara – The symbolic figure of ignorance, forgetfulness, distorted seeing, and false identification. Ignorance is restrained so that it does not govern life, but this restraint must remain compassionate.
Apratima – Without equal image, likeness, or comparison. It indicates that the Divine cannot be represented or measured by a second object.
Archana – Worship, adoration, or sacred offering. Its truth is measured by inward participation, conduct, and the relation between Linga and Jangama.
Arishadvarga – The six inner enemies: Kama, Krodha, Lobha, Moha, Mada, and Matsarya. The work uses the group to describe recurring forces that disturb awareness and conduct.
Arivu – Awakened awareness or knowing. Arivu must become Achara and Anubhava; otherwise it may remain information, argument, or intellectual pride.
Arpana – The act of offering or dedicating. Its truth lies in surrender without calculation, display, bargaining, or expectation of return.
Arpita – That which has already been offered or surrendered. In the volumes, the inward truth of offering may precede outward presentation.
Arpita-Prasada – The relation in which what is first offered is then received as Prasada. Offering and receiving are freed from personal ownership and transaction.
Artha – Wealth, means, substance, or worldly resources, according to context. The Vachanas test whether material means become ownership, bargaining, or the measure of spiritual worth.
Asha-pasha – The noose of hope, expectation, or craving. Hope becomes bondage when it is possessive, calculating, and separated from surrender.
Ashtavidha Archane – Eightfold worship or offering, where named in the source. Its spiritual value depends upon inward truth and conduct, not the number of acts alone.
Atita – Beyond or transcending a stated category, measure, or division. It does not necessarily reject that category; it indicates that the Divine cannot be contained by it.
Atma – The inward self or living principle. Its precise meaning depends upon the Vachana; in Aikya contexts it may be brought into an undivided relation with Linga.
Ayata – A state of directed or established approach, where used in contrast with Svayata. The exact meaning should follow the immediate Vachana rather than be forced into one fixed technical scheme.
B
Bahiranga – The outward field of speech, action, behaviour, worship, and relation. Basavanna joins Bahiranga-shuddhi with Antaranga-shuddhi so that outward form does not conceal inward impurity.
Bahiranga-shuddhi – Outer purity expressed through speech, action, livelihood, relationship, and conduct. It must agree with Antaranga-shuddhi.
Batta Bayalu – The vast open expanse in which limiting distinction and personal claim have fallen away. It is not simple emptiness or annihilation, but the measureless field of realised non-separation.
Bayalu – Open, boundless, all-pervading expanse. In the relevant Vachanas it can indicate the whole of the known and unknown, within which giving, receiving, appearance, and dissolution occur.
Bhakta – The first Sthala and the condition of awakened devotion. Longing, remembrance, humility, prayer, and refuge turn Anga from forgetfulness toward Linga.
Bhakti – Devotion or loving orientation toward the Divine. Basavanna tests Bhakti by sincerity, steadiness, conduct, non-bargaining, and its treatment of living beings.
Bhakti-kanda – The field or division centred on devotion. The Vachanas warn against isolating it from Kriya, Jnana, Achara, and living relation.
Bhava – A context-sensitive term. It may mean devotional feeling or inward disposition; in other passages it may mean becoming or conditioned existence. The surrounding Vachana must govern the meaning.
Bhava-pasha – The noose or binding cord of becoming. It describes the way conditioned existence tightens around the seeker when remembrance and right relation are lost.
Bhava-roga – The disease of conditioned becoming or worldly bondage. The image treats spiritual forgetfulness as an illness requiring recognition, right relation, and Divine grace.
Bhavi – A person remaining in ordinary becoming or outside awakened Linga-relation, according to context. It should not be used as a permanent insult or birth-based label.
Bheda – Difference, division, or separateness. Bhava-bheda is division within inward feeling or relation, even when the outward act appears correct.
Bhoganga – Anga understood through enjoyment or experience. In Aikya contexts its separate standing is surpassed together with Yoganga and Jnananga.
Bhrityachara – The conduct of the servant. It expresses humility, service, obedience to truth, and freedom from the pride of spiritual status.
Bimmu – Inflated pride, self-importance, or self-assurance. True company and honest spiritual conversation expose and break Bimmu.
Bindu – Point, seed, drop, or concentrated source, according to context. It should not be assigned a fixed esoteric system unless the Vachana itself supplies one.
Brahma – A named deity appearing in certain Vachanas. References should be read in their immediate devotional and rhetorical context and not automatically expanded into a complete mythology.
Brahmanda – The cosmic field or macrocosm. It is sometimes paired with Pindanda to show that individual and universal existence are not finally divided.
Brahmarandhra – A subtle inner locus named in yogic language, commonly associated with the crown. In the Aikya material it appears within a movement where inquiry and secondness fall away; it should not be expanded beyond the Vachana.
Brahmin – A member of the Brahmin community or inherited ritual class. The Vachanas challenge the use of birth or ritual privilege as the measure of spiritual worth.
C
Chara-Linga – The moving or living mode of Linga, often contrasted with Sthavara. It directs attention from fixed sacred form toward living sacred presence.
Chitta – The inner mind-field, attention, or consciousness, according to context. Its purity and steadiness are tested by remembrance and Linga-relation.
D
Dasoha – Offering and service arising from truthful Kayaka, without pride, ownership, bargaining, superiority, or creation of dependence. In Aikya it matures beyond the claim “I am the giver.”
Dasoham – “I am the servant.” It expresses servant-consciousness and the lowering of personal pride before Guru, Linga, Jangama, and the living community.
Daye – Compassion. Basavanna makes Daye the root and measure of Dharma, extending it toward all living beings rather than one preferred group.
Deha – The physical body. The body is neither despised nor treated as the final identity; it is the embodied field in which conduct, work, worship, and transformation occur.
Dharma – Right order, righteous living, and conduct grounded in compassion. Ritual or institutional form without Daye loses its living spiritual foundation.
Diksha – Initiation or consecration. Basavanna does not deny Diksha, but denies that initiation by itself proves devotion or transformed conduct.
Drishti – Sight, vision, gaze, or mode of seeing. The Vachanas repeatedly test whether seeing remains external or becomes direct inward recognition.
Drishti-Yoga – A discipline or relation of seeing, where explicitly named. Its value is measured by inward Linga-contact, not technique or visual claim alone.
Durita – Wrongdoing, affliction, or the burden arising from harmful conduct. Its meaning depends on context and should not be reduced to ritual impurity alone.
Dvaita – Duality or experienced two-ness. In Aikya, two-ness ceases to govern the relation between seeker and Divine, giver and receiver, or Anga and Linga.
Dvesha – Aversion, hostility, or hatred. It is one of the movements that divide relation and must be transformed through discernment and compassion.
E
Ekalinga – Single, undivided Linga-orientation. It expresses freedom from divided refuge and competing inward centres.
Ekalinga-parigraha – Exclusive reception or holding of the one Linga. It indicates undivided sacred allegiance rather than possession of Linga as private property.
Ekobhava – Single or gathered inward orientation. Attention is no longer scattered among competing centres of dependence.
G
Gana – A member of Shiva’s sacred host or fellowship. The term may also indicate the sacred community of devotees and should be understood from context.
Ghana – Density, fullness, or concentrated reality, according to context. It may describe a realised fullness that cannot be reduced to ordinary material density.
Guna – Quality, tendency, or constituent characteristic. Where Sattva, Rajas, and Tamas are named, the Vachana should govern how the three qualities are understood.
Guru – The transforming direction, teacher, word, or guidance that turns the seeker toward truth. Guru is not merely inherited office; Guru makes body, mind, conduct, and knowledge accountable.
Guru-karunya – The compassion or grace of Guru. It opens the seeker to right recognition and lived realisation rather than mere conceptual knowledge.
Guru-Linga-Jangama – The threefold sacred relation of transforming guidance, Divine presence, and living sacred manifestation. The terms remain meaningful, but their division falls away in Aikya.
Guru-vachana – The word or instruction of Guru. Its authority is realised when it corrects the seeker and becomes lived conduct rather than repeated speech.
H
Hammu – Pride, arrogance, or self-inflation, where the Kannada term is used. The exact shade should follow the Vachana and may overlap with Bimmu, Mada, or Ahankara.
Hangu – Dependence, attachment, claim, obligation, or expectation of return. Freedom from hangu means that worship, service, or embodied life is not governed by bargaining or possessive dependence.
Hara – A name of Shiva, often used in devotional utterance. Its meaning should remain connected to the wording and movement of the particular Vachana.
Hari – A name associated with Vishnu in the Vachanas. References may serve comparison, contrast, or a demand for undivided refuge and should not be generalised beyond context.
Haruva – A historical social or religious designation appearing in some Vachanas. It must be explained contextually and not used as a present-day insult or fixed spiritual judgement.
Hasta – Hand. In sacred imagery it may be the field of holding Ishtalinga, offering, service, or consecrating contact.
Hasta-mastaka-samyoga – The joining of hand and head in a sacred relation, where named. It may indicate consecration, transmission, or reverent contact and should be explained from the immediate passage.
Hridaya – The heart as the inward centre of feeling, remembrance, belonging, and recognition. It is not only the physical organ in these contexts.
I
Ida – One of the named subtle channels in yogic language. Basavanna warns against manipulating Ida, Pingala, and Sushumna and then claiming realisation without truth.
Ishtalinga – The Linga personally received, borne, worshipped, and inwardly realised. It places direct spiritual practice in the hands of the seeker but must not become an ornament of identity or possession.
J
Jangama – The living and moving sacred presence encountered in relationship. Worship of Linga remains incomplete when the living person is neglected, exploited, humiliated, or treated as inferior.
Jangama-bhakti – Devotion directed toward the living sacred presence. It becomes visible through hospitality, service, reverence, and freedom from social superiority.
Jangama-mukha – The face or living presence of Jangama as the immediate field of service and offering. In Jangama-Mukhalinga, the same living presence is recognised as the visible face of Linga.
Jangama-Prasada – Prasada received through or in relation to Jangama. The emphasis is sacred reception without discrimination, pride, or possessive claim.
Jangama-sanga – Company or fellowship with Jangama and realised persons. It is a field of correction, service, learning, and transformation.
Jati – Caste, birth-group, or inherited social category. Basavanna rejects its use as the measure of spiritual worth, which must be tested through conduct and Linga-relation.
Jiva – The living individual or embodied life-principle. Its precise relationship to Atma, Prana, and Linga must be read from the particular Vachana.
Jnana – Knowledge, insight, or spiritual knowing. Basavanna challenges Jnana when it becomes self-certifying possession; true knowing must become Anubhava and conduct.
Jnana-kanda – The field or division centred on knowledge. It becomes false when separated from action, devotion, company, humility, and living experience.
Jnananga – Anga understood through knowledge. In Aikya, its separate identity is surpassed together with Yoganga and Bhoganga.
K
Kailasa – The sacred abode associated with Shiva. Depending on context, it may indicate a spiritual destination, Divine nearness, or a measure against which lived truth is tested.
Kala – Part, division, phase, power, art, or measure, according to context. Numbered references to Kalas should not be converted into an unverified doctrinal list.
Kama – Desire or craving, one of the six inner enemies. The problem is not every human need, but desire that governs the person and deepens possession and bondage.
Karasthala – The palm of the hand, especially as the immediate field in which Ishtalinga is held and worshipped. The image stresses direct and personal sacred relation.
Karma – Action and its binding consequence, according to context. Basavanna questions both harmful action and the egoic calculation of merit, sin, reward, and personal doership.
Karma-kanda – The field or division centred on prescribed action and its results. The Vachanas criticise confinement within result-centred action, not responsible conduct itself.
Karta – Doer, master, or effective agent, according to context. Basavanna questions egoic doership while also using Karta for the true governing agency before which the servant stands.
Kaya – Body or embodied life. Kaya is the field of worship, work, service, and realisation and may mature into Kaya-Prasada.
Kayaka – Truthful, dignified, responsible work. No useful occupation is inherently high or low; the worth of work lies in honesty, social value, and freedom from exploitation.
Kaya-Prasada / Prasada-Kaya – Embodied life received as Prasada rather than private possession. Body, senses, and action remain under sacred responsibility and vigilance.
Kilbisha – Sin, fault, or moral-spiritual stain. The term points to conduct and inward impurity rather than inherited status.
Koham – “Who am I?”—the questioning movement of the separate seeker. In Aikya Vachana 816 the question falls away when the separation that produced it no longer governs awareness.
Kriya – Action, practice, or sacred activity. Kriya must remain joined with Jnana, Bhakti, Achara, and right motive; technique or action alone does not prove realisation.
Kriyachara – Disciplined sacred practice joined to right conduct. Guru, Linga, Jangama, Padodaka, and Prasada lose their living force when separated from conduct and practice.
Krodha – Anger, one of the six inner enemies. Vachana 235 treats restraint of anger as part of both inner and outer purity.
Kudalasangama Deva – Basavanna’s chosen name and address for the Divine. The name gathers devotion, surrender, truth, compassion, and final non-separation throughout the Vachanas.
Kudalasangayya – An intimate form of address to Kudalasangama Deva. It should be preserved as a direct devotional name rather than treated as a separate deity.
Kula – Lineage, clan, family, or inherited social identity. Basavanna overturns birth-based measures and asks whether conduct and compassion form the true lineage.
Kulaja – One of true or noble lineage. In the transformed sense used in the work, true lineage is established through conduct, compassion, non-harm, and belonging to Kudalasangama Deva rather than birth alone.
L
Linga – Divine presence as worshipped, remembered, realised, and lived. It may refer to Ishtalinga, inward Divine presence, or the non-separate ground of realisation; context must govern the meaning.
Linga-Aikya / Lingaikya – The ending of experienced separation between Anga and Linga. It is not physical fusion or personal self-glorification; independent claim and division no longer govern.
Linga-archana – Worship or offering directed to Linga. Its truth is measured by inward participation, right conduct, and recognition of Jangama.
Linga-Arpita – A person, body, action, or offering surrendered to Linga. The condition requires vigilance so that injustice, desire, and personal ownership do not return.
Linga-awareness – Continuous recognition of Linga in thought, breath, speech, work, action, and relationship. It is not confined to a chosen ritual time or place.
Linga-bhakti – Devotion to Linga. It must become conduct, steadiness, humility, and service rather than remain an outward profession.
Linga-Jangama / Jangama-Linga – The relation between Divine presence worshipped as Linga and encountered as living Jangama. Worship and reverence toward living sacred presence must not be divided.
Linga-nishtha – Steadfast establishment in Linga. It is undivided inward fidelity, not rigid pride or a title of superiority.
Linga-Prasada – That which has been offered to Linga and received back as sacred gift or grace. Receiving must be freed from calculation and ownership.
Linga-puja – Worship of Linga. Its completeness is tested by sincerity, conduct, non-bargaining, and honouring the same sacred presence in Jangama.
Linga-sambandha / Linga-relation – The living sacred relation with Linga through remembrance, worship, Prana, conduct, work, offering, and realisation. In related usage, sambandha means a lived bond or connection.
Linga-sanchara – The movement or circulation of Linga-awareness, according to context. It should be interpreted from the Vachana and not treated automatically as a fixed bodily technique.
Linga-touch – Transforming contact with Linga. The volumes use alchemical imagery to show that true contact must change conduct and cannot remain a superficial religious claim.
Lingavanta – One who bears or belongs to Linga. The term should indicate lived Linga-relation and conduct, not merely possession of an emblem or social label.
Lingayoga – The living discipline through which Anga turns toward Linga and Linga enters awareness, conduct, Prana, work, relationship, offering, and direct realisation.
Lobha – Greed or grasping, one of the six inner enemies. It turns wealth, knowledge, worship, and even spiritual opportunity into personal accumulation.
M
Mada – Pride, intoxication of self, or inflated importance, one of the six inner enemies. It may arise from birth, wealth, learning, office, ritual, or claimed realisation.
Mahaghana – Great density or supreme fullness, according to context. It signifies concentrated, immeasurable reality rather than ordinary physical mass.
Mahajnana – Great or supreme knowledge. Its truth is not a claim of intellectual possession but a knowing fulfilled in realisation and humility.
Mahalinga – Great Linga or the all-encompassing Divine presence. The exact force depends on the Vachana and should not be separated from Kudalasangama Deva.
Mahamane – The “great house” or larger sacred household of Kudalasangama Deva. It signifies belonging beyond narrow family pride and social exclusion.
Mahamaya – Great Maya or the vast field of binding appearance and identification. It should not be reduced to woman, body, family, wealth, or world as such.
Mahanubhava – A person of great lived realisation. Company with Mahanubhavas purifies body, mind, wealth, conduct, and the whole field of life.
Mahaprasada – Great or supreme Prasada. It may indicate a completed sacred offering and reception or a title of Divine fullness, depending on context.
Mahaprasadi – One established in the great or mature condition of Prasada. The term should be understood through fulfilled receiving and surrendered living, not as a title of social superiority.
Maheshwara – The second Sthala, where devotion is tested in conduct. Body, speech, senses, livelihood, relationship, worship, and offering must agree with the truth professed.
Mana – Mind. The Vachanas examine its restlessness, pride, calculation, forgetfulness, divided intention, and its need to be centred in Linga.
Mantra – Sacred utterance or formula. Its power is not mere repetition; sound must be joined with trust, remembrance, conduct, and inward participation.
Marahu – Forgetfulness, especially forgetfulness of Linga or sacred relation. It is a central form of bondage from which remembrance awakens the seeker.
Mastaka – Head. It may signify reverence, receiving grace, or the place upon which sacred water, ash, or the Guru-hand is received.
Matsarya – Jealousy or envy, one of the six inner enemies. It arises through comparison and prevents rejoicing in another person’s good.
Maya – Binding identification, distortion, possessiveness, and mistaken relation. Maya should not automatically be equated with woman, body, senses, family, wealth, or the world; the bondage lies in false relation and self-claim.
Moha – Delusion, confused attachment, or loss of discernment, one of the six inner enemies. It makes the passing appear final and the acquired identity appear absolute.
Mouna – Silence or inner stillness. It is not merely the absence of speech; it may indicate freedom from verbal self-display and mental disturbance.
Mukti – Liberation. The Vachanas may praise Mukti while also warning against turning liberation into a personally possessed reward or spiritual ambition.
N
Nada – Sound, resonance, or subtle sacred vibration, according to context. It should remain connected to the Vachana rather than be forced into a complete technical cosmology.
Nade – Walk, conduct, or the way one lives. It is frequently paired with Nudi, speech, to test whether word and life agree.
Namah Shivaya – The five-syllabled sacred mantra of surrender to Shiva. Its meaning is fulfilled when remembrance becomes conduct and inward consecration.
Nama-Rupa – Name and form, the distinctions through which manifested things are identified. Aikya does not necessarily erase ordinary forms; it removes their claim to be separate final realities.
Nema – Sacred observance, discipline, rule, or regular practice. Nema is meaningful when joined to awareness and conduct, not when used as outward display.
Nija – True, genuine, intrinsic, or actual, according to the compound. In expressions such as Nija-prana, Nijaguna, and Nijaikya, it marks the authentic or realised condition rather than an outward claim.
Nijaikya – True Aikya or established non-separation in Linga. In the Aikya material it is the condition in which no second abode or separate ground is sought apart from Linga.
Nija-paramananda – True Supreme Bliss. It is the settled condition in which two-ness and egoic authorship no longer govern.
Nilavu – State, standing, or abiding condition. It often describes the realised inward standing of a Sharana rather than outward status.
Nirahambhava – The condition in which the separately asserted sense of “I” no longer governs. It does not mean unconsciousness or destruction of embodied life.
Nirahankriti – Freedom from egoic authorship and the claim “I am the independent doer.” In fulfilled Dasoha, action continues without personal ownership.
Nirakara – Formless. It should not be placed against Sakara as though one alone contained the Divine; several Vachanas move beyond the opposition of form and formlessness.
Niranjana – Stainless, untainted, or untouched by binding impurity. It is often a quality of the Divine or realised state rather than merely ritual cleanliness.
Niravaya – The fearless and divisionless condition beyond even the need to retain the six Sthalas as personal identities. It is not a seventh rank or bodily disappearance.
Nirbhava – Beyond Bhava or free from conditioned becoming, according to context. It should not be confused with emotional emptiness when Bhava means devotion.
Nirguna – Without limiting qualities or beyond the grasp of qualities. It should be read with Saguna without turning the two into irreconcilable Divine realities.
Nirlepa – Unstained or untouched by binding attachment. It describes knowing or being that remains present without being marked by egoic possession or distortion.
Nirmala – Pure, clear, or without stain. The term indicates inward and relational purity, not birth-based or inherited purity.
Nirmaya – Free from the binding condition of Maya while continuing in the body. It does not mean becoming bodiless or denying embodied life.
Nirvana – Extinction of binding self-claim or settled freedom, according to context. In the completed volumes it is linked with Sahaja abidance and should not be reduced to bodily disappearance.
Nishchinta – Freedom from anxious concern. It is settled trust and untroubled abidance, not carelessness or avoidance of responsibility.
Nishchinta-nivasa – Untroubled abidance in which inward being, Divine presence, embodied life, and Sharana-company no longer function as divided fields.
Nishkala – Without parts or beyond division into parts. It indicates a reality not assembled from separate components.
Nishpatti – Fulfilment, completion, or consummation. It indicates a practice or relation brought to mature completion, as in fulfilled Dasoha.
Nishtha – Steadiness, fidelity, rootedness, or unwavering establishment. The term may qualify Linga, Prasada, practice, or inward orientation.
Nissanga – Freedom from binding association or attachment. It does not require indifference to people; it removes possessive dependence and self-claim.
Nitya – Constant, enduring, or daily, according to context. It may describe the Divine, continuous remembrance, or regular sacred practice.
Nitya-Nema – Regular or daily sacred observance. Its value lies in continuous inward relation rather than mechanical repetition.
Nitya-svatantra – Eternally free and self-governing. The term identifies Kudalasangama Deva as not dependent upon the seeker’s effort or mental construction.
Nudi – Speech or word. Its truth is tested by Nade, the conduct through which the spoken word is lived.
O
Om – The sacred syllable, where used. It should be explained through the immediate Vachana and not assumed to carry every later doctrinal interpretation.
Omkara – The sacred sound Om and its significance. It may point toward the source and ground of sacred sound, but should not be over-expanded beyond the text.
Om Namah Shivaya – The five-syllabled sacred remembrance of Shiva with Om prefixed. Its truth lies in inward consecration and lived remembrance rather than verbal repetition alone.
P
Padodaka – Water sanctified through the feet of Guru or Jangama, or the grace associated with that relation. Padodaka-Prasada joins this humble reception with Prasada; Nitya-Padodaka names its enduring, integrated fulfilment where the source requires it.
Panchabhuta-kaya – The body constituted through the five elements. The term underscores embodied existence without making the body spiritually inferior.
Panchachara – The fivefold sacred conduct or observance, where explicitly named. The glossary should explain the term without imposing a list where the Vachana does not enumerate it.
Panchakshari – The five-syllabled mantra Namah Shivaya. Its living force depends upon remembrance, devotion, and conduct.
Panchamukha Rudrakshi – The five-faced Rudrakshi. In the relevant Vachana it is joined with the five-faced form of the Lord and the path of purification and Mukti.
Panchavaktra – The five-faced form of the Lord. Its explanation should remain tied to the Vachana that relates it to Panchamukha Rudrakshi.
Papa – Sin, harmful action, or moral-spiritual impurity. The Vachanas redirect attention from ritual calculation to the transformation of conduct and remembrance.
Paramananda – Supreme bliss. It is not ordinary pleasure or emotional excitement, but a settled condition beyond divided self-claim.
Paramartha – Supreme or ultimate meaning and reality. It indicates truth beyond superficial appearance and verbal claim.
Paramatma – The Supreme Self or Divine ground. Its relation with Atma, Jangama, and Linga must follow the particular Vachana.
Paratattva – Supreme reality or the highest principle. The term indicates what cannot be exhausted by speech, mind, category, or doctrinal possession.
Paripurna – Complete, whole, and full. Kudalasangama Deva is described as Paripurna, untouched by the defect and incompleteness found in the seeker.
Parusha – The transforming touchstone or alchemical stone that turns iron into gold. Basavanna uses it as an image of irreversible transformation through Linga-touch or sacred company.
Pashu – The bound being. Basavanna may call himself Pashu to confess bondage and dependence rather than to deny human dignity.
Pashupati – Lord of the bound beings. The name presents the Divine as the One who can hold, guide, and release the Pashu.
Pataka – Grave fault or sin. The Vachanas direct attention toward transformation and remembrance rather than pride in ritual purification.
Pindanda – The individual embodied field or microcosm. It may be paired with Brahmanda to show the ending of final division between individual and cosmic reality.
Pingala – One of the named subtle channels in yogic language. Basavanna warns that manipulating channels cannot by itself establish realisation.
Pralaya – Dissolution in which manifested forms disappear. Some Vachanas place Kudalasangama Deva beyond even the opposition of arising and dissolution.
Pramana – Measure, evidence, authority, or valid means of knowing, according to context. The Vachanas often show the limit of external proof before direct seeing and Anubhava.
Pramatha – A member of Shiva’s sacred host or a spiritually charged identity in the Vachanas. Basavanna tests the name by Bhakti and Satya so that it does not become empty self-description.
Prana – Breath, life-force, or living current. In Pranalingi Sthala, Prana becomes established in Linga; it is not merely biological breath or a privately possessed force.
Prana-Linga – The intimate relation between life-current and Linga. In the paired expression Prana-Linga and Linga-Prana, the source examines their reciprocal relation without reducing it to a physical technique.
Pranalinga – Linga realised within Prana, breath, awareness, speech, senses, and action. The seeker no longer stands outside Linga as a separate observer.
Pranalingi – The fourth Sthala. Linga-awareness becomes continuous with Prana and daily life, moving beyond worship confined to a selected time or place.
Prana-sanchara – The movement or circulation of Prana, according to context. It should not be converted into a fixed technique where the Vachana is symbolic or cautionary.
Pranava – The sacred ground or significance of Om. In the Aikya material, its establishment, nature, and harmony are attributed to Kudalasangama Deva rather than presented as personal achievement.
Prasada – Sacred gift, grace, offering received, or the condition of receiving without possession. It may refer to food or object, but also to transformed reception and embodied life.
Prasada-bhoga – Partaking of Prasada. It is receiving what has been offered without personal possession, calculation, or entitlement.
Prasadi – The third Sthala. Worship and receiving are purified from bargaining, expectation, calculation, and possessive ownership; what is received is known as grace rather than personal acquisition.
Puja – Worship or sacred offering. Basavanna tests Puja by inward truth, conduct, non-bargaining, and whether worship of Linga continues as honour toward Jangama.
Punya – Merit or beneficial moral-spiritual consequence. The Vachanas warn against making merit-calculation the centre of devotion or personal pride.
Puratana – Ancient, original, or belonging to the earlier sacred community. When used for Sharanas, it recognises the lineage of lived devotion rather than mere age.
Purna – Full, complete, or whole. The term is related to Paripurna and indicates a condition without deficiency or fragmentation.
R
Raga – Attraction or binding attachment. It is often paired with Dvesha; both divide awareness through grasping and rejection.
Rajas – The quality of activity, passion, or restlessness, where the three Gunas are invoked. The term should follow the Vachana rather than be expanded into a complete system.
Rudra – A name or form of Shiva. In some Vachanas scriptural testimony identifies Rudra as the One without a second and directs recognition toward Kudalasangama Deva.
Rudrakshi – Rudraksha or Rudrakshi, the sacred bead associated with Shiva. It serves remembrance, purification, discipline, and Mukti, but is not a substitute for inward transformation.
S
Sadachara – Right, truthful, and spiritually aligned conduct. It joins lived realisation with everyday speech, work, relation, and responsibility.
Sadbhakta – A true or genuine devotee; Sadbhakti is genuine devotion. The measure is sincerity, steadiness, conduct, and lived Linga-relation.
Sadbhava – True, wholesome, or sincere inward disposition. It joins right feeling with truth and conduct rather than emotional display.
Sadguru – The true Guru whose guidance turns the seeker toward lived truth. The term should not be reduced to institutional title or inherited authority.
Saguna – With qualities or expressed through qualities and form. It should not be divided absolutely from Nirguna, as the Vachanas may move beyond both categories.
Sahaja – Natural, effortless, or innate abidance after divided self-assertion has fallen away. A Sahaja Sharana is one in whom such steadiness has become natural rather than merely claimed.
Sahaja Lingaikya – Natural and effortless abidance in Linga-non-separation. Truth and purity are no longer held as possessions or displayed attainments.
Sakara – With form. The Vachanas do not require the seeker to make form and formlessness into opposing final realities.
Sakshatkara – Direct realisation or immediate seeing. It is not second-hand knowledge, verbal declaration, or a claim based only on technique.
Samadhi – Absorbed stillness or sacred resting, according to context. In Sharana Vachana 1221 it also names the reverent placing of a Linga-bhakta’s body; the exact sense follows the Vachana.
Samarasa – Undivided harmony, equal essence, or non-separated participation. It is not the mechanical mixing of objects but the ending of opposed standing.
Samarasasukha – The joy or bliss of undivided harmony. It is distinct from pleasure dependent on favourable circumstance.
Samayachara – Disciplined conduct aligned with the sacred path and time of practice. It must remain joined to Sadachara and Anubhava.
Sambandha – Relationship, bond, or living connection. In compounds such as Linga-sambandha and Sharana-sambandha, it signifies sacred belonging rather than mere social association.
Samhara – Dissolution or transformation. It does not mean destruction alone; in sacred symbolism it is part of the movement through which forms change and claims fall away.
Samsara – Conditioned worldly becoming and the cycle of attachment, identity, fear, desire, and repeated bondage. The world itself is not dismissed; false relation within it is transformed.
Sankalpa – Mental formation, intention, resolve, or projecting thought. It may bind when it becomes self-directed claim or restless construction.
Sankalpa-vikalpa – The mind’s movement between formation, resolve, projection, doubt, and counter-thought. Its falling away indicates release from wavering inner construction.
Sarvanga – The whole embodied being or all limbs. In compounds such as Sarvanga-Linga, it indicates that no part of embodied life is left outside Linga-relation.
Satkriya – True, proper, or spiritually aligned action. Its validity is measured by motive, conduct, and Linga-relation rather than external performance alone.
Sattva – The quality of clarity or balance, where the three Gunas are invoked. The term should remain within the exact source context.
Satya – Truth, truthfulness, and reality. Basavanna tests spiritual names, speech, worship, and conduct by whether Satya is actually lived.
Sayujya – Intimate union or non-separate participation with the Divine. It should not be understood as a reward possessed by an independent spiritual ego.
Seva – Service. In the Vachanas it matures through humility and non-ownership and becomes inseparable from Jangama-relation and Dasoha.
Sharana – One who has entered surrender, and the fifth Sthala in which surrender becomes visible through humility, steadiness, truthfulness, compassion, service, fellowship, and Dasoha.
Sharana-Anubhava – The lived realisation present in the Sharanas and encountered through their company. It is a field in which devotion is tested, corrected, and deepened.
Sharana-bhakti – The devotion of the Sharana or devotion directed through Sharana-relation. Its proof lies in surrendered living and conduct.
Sharana-sanga – Company and fellowship with Sharanas. It is not social association alone, but a field of correction, humility, Anubhava, service, and transformation.
Sharana-sati / Linga-pati – A paired relational expression in the Aikya material: Sharana-sati signifies complete fidelity and surrendered belonging; Linga-pati presents Linga as the governing Lord of that relation.
Shastra – Sacred treatise, systematic teaching, or authoritative text. Basavanna shows both its value and its limit before direct Linga-awareness.
Shatsthala – The sixfold living map of Bhakta, Maheshwara, Prasadi, Pranalingi, Sharana, and Aikya. The Sthalas are movements of ripening, not ranks, honours, or permanent identities.
Shila – Character, ethical disposition, or disciplined quality of life. Where joined with Achara, it points to conduct established as character rather than occasional performance.
Shiva – The Divine name and sacred reality addressed through many forms in the Vachanas. In Basavanna’s own signature, devotion is gathered in Kudalasangama Deva.
Shiva-bhakti – Devotion to Shiva. Its truth lies in lived transformation, not sacred claim, mark, or verbal profession alone.
Shivachara – Conduct aligned with Shiva or Linga. It joins sacred observance with ethical, relational, and practical truth.
Shiva-Linga – Linga in relation to Shiva. The compound should be interpreted within the Vachana and not treated as a merely material object.
Shivaloka – The world or abode of Shiva. Depending on context, it may name a sacred destination, state, or devotional image rather than a geographical place.
Shruti – Revealed sacred testimony that is heard and transmitted. Some Vachanas appeal to Shruti to correct a merely verbal or incomplete claim about scripture.
Shuddhi – Purity. Basavanna joins inner and outer purity and measures it through non-harm, truthfulness, restraint, humility, and clean conduct rather than inherited status.
Shunya – Emptiness, openness, or the field beyond fixed form and claim, according to context. It should not automatically be translated as nihilistic nothingness.
Shvapacha – A historical term for a person placed outside or at the lowest edge of caste society. Basavanna uses such language to overturn birth-based hierarchy; it must not be repeated as a degrading label.
Smarana – Remembrance of Linga and Kudalasangama Deva. It interrupts forgetfulness and matures into continuity with breath, speech, work, and action.
Soham – “I am That.” In the Vachanas it must not become egoic self-certification; it is balanced by Dasoham and fulfilled only when separate claim falls away.
Srishti – Manifestation or arising. It is one part of the movement of appearance, continuance, and dissolution and is not the final measure of the Divine.
Sthala – A condition, field, or stage of spiritual ripening. It is not a social rank or permanent identity to be claimed over others.
Sthavara – Fixed or immovable sacred form, often contrasted with Jangama or Chara. Basavanna tests whether reverence for the fixed form continues toward living sacred presence.
Sthiti – Continuation, sustenance, or abiding. It is paired with Srishti and Samhara as a movement of manifested existence.
Sujnana – True or right knowledge. In expressions such as Sujnana-Linga, knowledge is not merely learned but revealed, inwardly received, and established in life.
Suluhu – Sign, trace, clue, or revealing mark. In Aikya contexts it may indicate the discernible sign of a state, or the limit beyond which familiar signs cannot measure it.
Sunada – Refined inward resonance or subtle sound. In Aikya Vachana 816 it appears with Bindu, Pranava, Soham, and Koham in a movement that culminates beyond separate inquiry.
Sushumna – The central named subtle channel in yogic language. Technique involving Sushumna cannot replace truth, Guru’s compassion, or direct realisation.
Sutaka – Impurity associated with birth, death, contact, caste, or ritual condition. Basavanna challenges inherited and external impurity when it is separated from awareness and conduct.
Svanubhava – One’s own direct lived realisation. It is not private opinion; it is truth directly known and tested in life.
Svatantra – Free, independent, or self-governing. Applied to the Divine, it means not dependent upon the seeker; applied to the ego it may be questioned as false independence.
Svayata – Inwardly established or self-grounded, according to context, sometimes contrasted with Ayata. The term should follow the source and not be given a universal technical definition.
Swayanubhavi – One who knows through direct realisation. Such a person does not depend merely on borrowed doctrine, speech, or reputation.
T
Tamas – The quality of darkness, inertia, or obscuration, where the three Gunas are invoked. It should not be over-expanded beyond the source.
Tantra – Sacred method, system, or technique. Basavanna tests every technique by inward truth, conduct, and actual Linga-realisation.
Tanu – The body or embodied person. Like Kaya and Deha, it is the field of responsibility, worship, work, and offering.
Tarka – Reasoning, argument, or logical examination. It has value, but its reach is limited; argument cannot substitute for direct Anubhava.
Tattva – Principle, reality, or essential truth. Numbered or classified Tattvas should not be inserted where the source uses a different term such as Kala.
Trishna – Thirst, craving, or insistent desire. It turns need into binding acquisition and must be transformed through contentment, offering, and remembrance.
Turya – The “fourth” or transcendent condition in yogic language. In Turya-Paramananda it indicates supreme bliss beyond ordinary waking, dream, and sleep categories; the source context remains governing.
U
Upachara – An act of worship, reverence, service, or ceremonial offering. Its truth depends upon inward participation and right relation, not external correctness alone.
Upadesha – Sacred instruction or transmission, especially through Guru or Jangama. Its truth is fulfilled when instruction becomes understanding and lived direction rather than repeated speech.
Upamatita – Beyond comparison. The Divine cannot be adequately measured by likeness, analogy, or a second standard.
V
Vairagya – Freedom from binding attachment or dispassion. It is not hatred of life or neglect of responsibility; it removes possessive dependence and personal claim.
Vangmanakkagochara – Beyond the reach of speech and mind. The phrase marks the limit of verbal and conceptual grasp before supreme reality.
Varna – Colour, class, kind, letter, or distinguishing category, according to context. It should not be assigned automatically to one fixed social or metaphysical system where the Vachana does not specify it.
Vashya – Mastery or bringing under direction. Basavanna rejects its use as domination and redirects it toward inward mastery through “Om Namah Shivaya.”
Veda – Sacred revelation and transmitted scripture. The Vachanas may cite Veda while also declaring that Kudalasangama Deva exceeds scriptural formulation.
Vedanta – The concluding or highest teaching associated with Veda. The term should be read in the source context and tested by lived realisation rather than verbal claim.
Vibhuti – Sacred ash. It serves remembrance, consecration, and discipline but does not by itself prove inner transformation.
Vikara – Modification, disturbance, alteration, or distortion. Compounds such as Anga-vikara or mano-vikara identify changes that cease to govern the realised condition.
Vinaya – Humility, modesty, and disciplined gentleness. It protects devotion, knowledge, service, and leadership from self-importance.
Vipra – A Brahmin or one treated as ritually superior by inherited status, according to context. Basavanna may use the term to expose misplaced reverence toward social hierarchy.
Vishnu – A Divine name and figure appearing in some Vachanas, often through the name Hari. The reference must remain within the particular comparison, prayer, or demand for undivided refuge.
Vrata – Vow or sacred observance. A vow is tested by inward truth, conduct, and steadiness rather than outward performance alone.
Y
Yoga – Spiritual discipline, joining, or integrated practice. In the Vachanas, Yoga must remain joined to conduct, devotion, grace, and direct Linga-awareness.
Yoganga – Anga understood through Yoga. In Aikya, its separate designation is surpassed together with Bhoganga and Jnananga.
Yukti – Right integration, intelligent means, or inward coherence. It prevents action, devotion, and knowledge from remaining disconnected compartments. The original Kannada remains the governing source.
Part I The Sixfold Path
Part II Fields of Bondage — 24 Principal + 7 Subtler = 31 Fields
Part III From Anga to Lingayoga — The Living Relational Core
Part IV The Fulfilment of Shatsthala — From Ripening to Linga-Aikya and Niravaya