Poetic Rendering
Let my tongue speak only words
shaped by Your Vachanas, filled with truth.
Let my eyes behold nothing
but Your all-pervading form.
Let my heart hold no memory
that is not fragrant with Your presence.
Let my ears hear only
the praise that rises in Your name.
O Kudalasangama Deva,
sanctify these senses of mine
let not one of them stray
toward what dims Your light.
This vachana expresses a profound yogic aspiration: not to abandon the senses, but to sanctify them to transform every faculty of human experience into a pathway toward the Divine. Basavanna guides the seeker through four inner offerings: Speech becomes Vachana words that arise from truth and clarity. Sight becomes darshana the ability to perceive the Divine in all forms. Memory becomes smarana remembrance steeped in sacred presence. Hearing becomes shravanaattuning the mind only to what uplifts and awakens.
In this teaching, the senses are not obstacles; they are instruments that, when purified, become gateways to Shiva-consciousness. The final prayer to prevent even the slightest deviation from this sanctified awarenessreveals Basavanna’s understanding that liberation is not achieved elsewhere but through the total transformation of daily perception, speech, and remembrance. Thus, the vachana embodies the essence of embodied spirituality: When every sense becomes aligned with the Divine, life itself becomes an unbroken worship and the seeker becomes the living Linga.
Spiritual Context
Core Spiritual Principle: Consecration of the Instrument. Spiritual realization is not about negating human faculties but about purifying and dedicating them entirely to the divine. The path is one of transformation, not rejection turning the very mechanisms of worldly engagement into portals of liberation.
Cosmic Reality Perspective (non-dual, Shiva-Shakti dynamics): The cosmos is the dynamic self-expression (Shakti) of the Absolute (Shiva). The human senses are individualized aspects of that same expressive power. To “sanctify the senses” is to realign this individualized Shakti with its source, allowing the microcosmic perception to perfectly reflect the macrocosmic manifestation. It is to see Shiva in all forms, hear Shiva in all sounds, and speak Shiva in all words.
Historical Reality (Anubhava Mantapa context): This vachana countered both ascetic negation of the body and ritualistic external piety. Within the Anubhava Mantapa, it established a radical, integral spirituality where everyday human experience was the raw material for enlightenment. It provided a practical method for Kayakave Kailasa (work is worship) by making the worker’s very senses the site of worship.
Interpretation
1.Speech (Tongue/Vachana): The faculty of Vak (speech) is a creative power. Aligning it with “Your Vachanas” means letting divine truth (Satya) articulate itself through the individual. This transforms speech from egoic expression (Vikara) to revelatory utterance (Mantra), where the speaker becomes a conduit for the divine Word.
2.Sight (Eyes/Form): Ordinary sight is conditioned by Nāma-Rūpa (name and form), creating separation. To “behold nothing but Your all-pervading form” is to cultivate Divya Drishti (divine sight)the unitive vision that perceives the one divine consciousness (Chit) shimmering within and as all apparent forms. This is the practice of seeing the Linga in everything.
3.Memory (Heart/Presence): Memory (Smriti) is the storehouse of Samskāras (mental impressions) that shape identity and desire. To hold only memories “fragrant with Your presence” is to purify this storehouse, replacing karmic traces with the perfume of grace (Prasada). This breaks the cycle of reactive mind and anchors consciousness in eternal presence (Nitya).
4.Hearing (Ears/Praise): Hearing (Shravana) is the gateway of influence. To hear “only the praise that rises in Your name” is to practice Nada Yogaat tuning to the fundamental divine vibration (Anāhata Nāda) underlying all sound. It protects the mind from dissonant, distracting frequencies and immerses it in the harmonious resonance of the cosmos.
Practical Implications: This is a blueprint for integral mindfulness. Every sensory encounter becomes a deliberate act of devotion. One must consciously curate input (what is seen, heard) and output (what is spoken, remembered), turning life into a continuous Sadhana.
The Cosmic Reality
Anga (Human Dimension): The human being as a complex instrument of perception, currently operating in a fragmented, desire-driven mode. The Anga is both the problem (distracted senses) and the potential solution (the instrument to be sanctified).
Linga (Divine Principle): The singular, radiant reality that is the only worthy object of perception. The Linga is not separate from the senses but is their pure, essential content. It is what remains when sensory engagement is stripped of egoic projection.
Jangama (Dynamic Interaction): The sacred discipline of Indriya Nigraha (sense control) reinterpreted not as suppression but as joyful redirection. It is the dynamic, loving engagement where every look becomes worship (Darshana), every word becomes prayer (Japa), every memory becomes meditation (Smarana), and every sound becomes scripture (Shruti).
Shata Sthala
Primary Sthala: Pranalingi (Life-Force Union). The prayer targets the vital energies (prana) that animate the senses, seeking their fusion with the Linga. When the prana behind seeing, hearing, etc., is united with the divine, sensory experience itself becomes enlightenment.
Supporting Sthala: Bhakta (Stage of Devotion). The vachana is framed as a devotional plea. The deep longing and love (Bhakti) for God is the fuel that powers the arduous work of sensory transformation.
Practical Integration
Arivu (Awareness Practices): Implement “Sensory Gatekeeping.” Before any sensory engagement, pause to set intention: “May this seeing be for Your darshan.” After engagement, reflect: “Did this align with the divine?” Cultivate witness-consciousness toward your own sensory habits.
Achara (Personal Discipline): Create a Sattvic (pure) sensory environment. This includes a diet of truthful speech, consumption of uplifting art and music, intentional recollection of positive, grace-filled moments, and selective hearing that avoids gossip and negativity.
Kayaka (Sacred Action): In your work, let your senses be fully present and consecrated. Let your eyes see the divine in the task and materials, your ears listen deeply to colleagues, your speech be constructive, and your memory recall the sacred purpose of your labor.
Dasoha (Communal Offering): Offer the community the gift of your sanctified presence. Speak words that heal and clarify (Vachana). Offer a gaze that sees and honors the divine in others. Listen with full, non-judgmental attention. Your transformed presence becomes a living temple that uplifts the collective space.
Modern Application
Digital Dissociation and Profane Perception. Our senses are under unprecedented assault from algorithmic media designed to hijack attention for profit. We experience a “crisis of the sacred” our sight glues to screens, our hearing drowns in noise, our speech becomes reactive online, and our memory is outsourced to devices, leaving us spiritually malnourished amidst sensory overload.
Conscious Re-sacralization of Experience. Use this vachana as a manifesto for Digital Sannyasa (renunciation within use). Practice: turning device notifications into calls to presence; transforming scrolling into seeking the divine in images; converting listening to podcasts into Shravana of wisdom teachings; using speech on social media to express Vachana-like truth and kindness. Reclaim your senses as your own, and dedicate their use to what truly illuminates.
Essence
Not the denial of sight, but a purer seeing.
Not the silencing of speech, but a truer saying.
Not the emptying of memory, but a holier recalling.
Not the closing of ears, but a finer hearing.
O Unifier of Streams,
make these rivers of perception
flow only to Your ocean.
This vachana describes the alchemical transmutation of the elemental human interface. The senses are the interface between consciousness (Chit) and the apparent world (Jagat). Currently, this interface runs on a “binary code” of pleasure/pain, like/dislike. Sanctification rewrites this code to a “unitary code” of divine presence/absence (where absence is merely obscured presence). The prayer invokes the Linga as the transcendental programmer to install this new operating system.
Imagine your mind is a castle with five gates (the senses). Usually, the gates are left open, letting in friends and foes, treasures and trash alike. Basavanna’s prayer is: “O Lord, be the gatekeeper at every gate. Let only what reminds me of You enter, and let only what expresses You leave.” The castle then becomes a peaceful, luminous fortress of devotion.
We are perceiving creatures. Our deepest suffering comes from perceiving a world that feels alien, threatening, or meaningless. Our deepest joy comes from perceiving connection, beauty, and love. This vachana addresses the core human yearning to find a steady, reliable source of joy and meaning in the very act of perception itself. It teaches that happiness is not found by changing what we perceive, but by changing how and for whom we perceive. When we perceive for God, through God, everything becomes God, and the seeker finds everlasting contentment in the simplest act of seeing, hearing, or speaking.
Views: 0