Poetic Rendering
The sunlight rising is the life-breath of the lotus;
The moon’s cool glow is the
life-breath of the water-lily.
So too, within this fragile body,
the meeting-place of devotion and awareness
is the fountain of life itself.
The grace that abides in Your sacred center,
and the vision that blossoms from it
these alone sustain my being.
And when the Sharanas of Kudalasangama arrive,
the two lightsmine and Yours
rush together and melt as one,
duality falls away,
and a single, boundless radiance
fills all the directions.
In this vachana, Basavanna describes the pinnacle of Linga-Anga Yoga, using natural imagery to convey profound metaphysical truth. Just as the lotus depends entirely on sunlight and the water-lily on moonlight, the devotee depends on the Divine for inner vitality. Within the human body frail yet sacred lies the “central place” where awareness (jnana) and devotion (bhakti) converge. This inner confluence is life’s true essence. The Linga (the Divine light) and the Anga (the devotee’s light) begin as two distinct illuminations. But through the living presence of the Sharanas the realized community embodying grace the separation dissolves. The duality of “I” and “You,” worshipper and worshipped, melts into a single, indivisible radiance. The vachana thus reveals the climax of spiritual practice: Aikya the non-dual union where divine light and human light become one endless brilliance.
Spiritual Context
Core Spiritual Principle: Realization is a Photonic Union. The final truth is not a relationship but an identity of light. Individual awareness (jiva-chaitanya) and divine consciousness (Linga-chaitanya) are ultimately photons of the same primordial radiance. Spiritual practice purifies the individual photon until it recognizes its same frequency and source, leading to a coherent merging where separation is impossible.
Cosmic Reality Perspective (non-dual, Shiva-Shakti dynamics): The sun represents the fierce, illuminating power of Shiva-consciousness (Jnana Shakti). The moon represents the cool, reflective, nourishing power of Shakti (Bhakti Shakti). The devotee (Anga) is the flowering of their union. The “two lights” are Shiva (transcendent light) and Shakti (immanent light) experienced as distinct within the devotee’s heart. The gathering of Sharanas creates a resonant field where this internal duality collapses, revealing the Ardhanarishvara within and without as one seamless reality.
Historical Reality (Anubhava Mantapa context): This vachana describes the intended experiential core of the Anubhava Mantapa fellowship. The “arrival of the Sharanas” is the Mantapa in session. It was designed to be more than a discussion forum; it was a catalytic environment where individual spiritual experiences (“my light”) would interact and amplify, triggering the communal experience of non-dual radiance (“single, boundless radiance”). This was the experimental verification of their theology: that divine union could be a shared, communal reality, not just a private attainment.
Interpretation
1.”The sunlight rising is the life-breath of the lotus; The moon’s cool glow is the life-breath of the water-lily.”: Establishes the principle of specific, nourishing dependence. Different flowers require different lights, just as different soul-temperaments may lean on jnana (sun) or bhakti (moon). Both, however, are utterly dependent on a source beyond themselves.
2.”So too, within this fragile body, the meeting-place of devotion and awareness is the fountain of life itself.”: Locates the sacred geometry within the human form. This “meeting-place” (sangama-sthana) is the heart (hridaya), reconceived as the confluence where the streams of love and wisdom merge to generate spiritual vitality.
3.”The grace that abides in Your sacred center, and the vision that blossoms from itthese alone sustain my being.”: Distinguishes the two lights. One is the descending light of grace from the Divine pole (Linga). The other is the ascending light of awakened perception from the human pole (Anga). Both are necessary for the “being” of the seeker.
4.”And when the Sharanas of Kudalasangama arrive… duality falls away, and a single, boundless radiance fills all the directions.”: The communal catalyst. The Sharanas embody the already-unified field. Their presence creates an energetic milieu where the mental habit of duality cannot be sustained. The separate “lights” are revealed as constructs; only the indivisible radiance of pure consciousness remains, experienced as omnipresent.
The Cosmic Reality
Anga (Human Dimension): The Anga is a prism. It receives the white light of the Divine and, due to its conditioned nature, perceives it as separate colors (devotion, awareness, grace, vision). Realization is the prism becoming clear, allowing the light to pass through unchanged, realizing it was always the light itself.
Linga (Divine Principle): The Linga is the pure, undifferentiated light source. It is “boundless radiance.” Its “sacred center” is not a location but its inherent, non-dual nature.
Jangama (Dynamic Interaction): The Jangama is the act of the prism clarifying. It is the process, catalyzed by satsanga, where the apparent separation between the light, the prism, and the perceived colors dissolves, leaving only the fact of illumination.
Shata Sthala
Primary Sthala: Aikya. The “single, boundless radiance” is the environment of Aikya. The vachana doesn’t describe a path to this state but the state itself as it manifests in a community of realized beings.
Supporting Sthala: Sharana. The “Sharanas” whose arrival triggers the union are individuals established in the Sharana stage total refuge. Their collective presence is what tips the scale from the practice of refuge to the experience of being the refuge itself (Aikya).
Practical Integration
Arivu (Awareness Practices): In meditation, practice seeing thoughts, feelings, and perceptions not as “yours,” but as modulations of a single field of awareness. Look for the one “radiance” within which all inner and outer phenomena appear and disappear.
Achara (Personal Discipline): Cultivate your “meeting-place” of devotion and awareness. Let your loving devotion soften your heart, and let clear awareness illuminate your mind. Nurture both as one integrated practice.
Kayaka (Sacred Action): Perform actions as offerings that blend your skill (your light) with a sense of higher purpose (the Divine light). Seek to erase the distinction between your effort and the grace that enables it.
Dasoha (Communal Offering): Prioritize deep, silent fellowship. In satsanga, move beyond discussion. Sit in shared silence with the intention of allowing individual identities to soften into a shared field of presence. Be a contributor to that unifying radiance.
Modern Application
“The Fragmentation of Consciousness.” Modern life bombards us with countless disparate “lights” screen glows, conflicting ideologies, fractured attention. We become fields of scattered photons, lacking coherence. This leads to existential dissonance and a feeling of being a bundle of conflicting parts without a center.
This vachana offers the promise of inner and outer coherence. It suggests that the path to wholeness is not adding more light, but realizing the singular source of all light within. It advocates for creating “Sharana gatherings” small, intentional communities dedicated not to debate, but to mutual abidance in silence and presence, where the fractured self can experience reintegration into a “boundless radiance.”
Essence
Two lights were seen: the Gift, and my heart’s reply.
Like sun to lotus, moon to lily’s eye.
I thought they fed my fragile, separate form.
Then came the Wise, within whose silent storm
No “two” can live. My light, Your grace, they leapt
And into one unmeasured brilliance swept.
Now what is flower, what is sun, what is me?
One Radiance, alone, that all eyes see.
This vachana illustrates the quantum optical principle of coherent superposition and laser resonance. Individual photons (seekers) in ordinary light are out-of-phase and scattered (duality). The process of spiritual purification aligns their phase (preparation through sadhana). The community of Sharanas acts as the resonant optical cavity. When these prepared individuals gather, their “lights” enter a state of coherent superposition, stimulating the emission of identical photons. The result is a laser-like beam of coherent consciousness “single, boundless radiance” where individual photon identities are lost in the collective, amplified, and perfectly aligned emission. This is the technology of collective awakening.
Imagine many candles in a dark room (individual seekers). Each burns with its own separate flame (dual consciousness). Now, place them all inside a perfectly reflective chamber (the Sangha of Sharanas). The light from each candle reflects off the others, amplifying and filling the chamber. Soon, you cannot tell which candle produced which photon of light; the entire space is filled with a single, brilliant, homogeneous glow. The candles haven’t vanished; they have become the indivisible condition of illumination. This is the state Basavanna describes.
We long both for our unique spark and to be part of something boundless. This vachana resolves that paradox: our unique light is not extinguished in the infinite, but discovers it was always a localized expression of it. The fear of losing ourselves in God is soothed by the realization that what we call “our self” was a temporary lens focusing a universal light. In merging, we don’t lose our light; we gain its true, unbounded source. The community of the awake is the crucible where this alchemy from particle to wave, from individual to infinite, becomes experientially real.
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