Poetic Rendering
If a man, seeing the snake-pit,
slithers as though he were truly a serpent
what is such acting worth?
If another, watching water,
mimics the glide of a water-snake
can such borrowed movement please Śiva?
You who change color
to suit every glance and season,
you who perform devotion today
and postpone truth to “some later time”
know this:
each false gesture you make
becomes the fire of your own hell,
burning here, in this very life.
Those who mirror the world
instead of standing in their own truth,
those who hide inside lies
and call it “practice for tomorrow”
Kudalasangamadeva,
they cannot be Your beloved.
For the heaven they seek later
is lost now
in the hell they create within.
This vachana is Basavanna’s direct warning to those who pretend spirituality instead of living it. He gives images of people imitating snakes on land or in water symbolizing those who imitate holiness without embodying it. Their “devotion” is performance, not transformation.
Basavanna rejects the idea that one can lie, deceive, or postpone inner work now and attain liberation later. Heaven and hell are not afterlife destinations they are psychological-spiritual states born from one’s present conduct.
Those who constantly change their “color” to please society, who craft spiritual façades while nurturing inner falsehood, create their own suffering and distance themselves from the Divine. Only those who live truthfully now are beloved of Kudalasangamadeva.
Spiritual Context
Core Spiritual Principle: Authenticity is the fundamental currency of the spirit. Heaven and hell are not distant destinations but present psychological states generated by one’s alignment with or deviation from inner truth. Postponement of authenticity is itself a form of self-created suffering.
Cosmic Reality Perspective: In the non-dual Shivayoga, reality is Sat-Chit-Ananda (Truth-Consciousness-Bliss). To be inauthentic is to violate the principle of Sat, creating a fracture in consciousness that manifests as the “fire” of inner conflict (hell). The Linga is the immutable truth; union requires the Anga to reflect that truth in its own unique, unrehearsed way, not through borrowed forms.
Historical Reality (Anubhava Mantapa Context): In 12th-century Kalyana, religious life was often dominated by ritual performance and social conformity. This vachana served as a radical call for integrity within the Sharana movement. It challenged those who adopted the external markers of the community without inner transformation, ensuring that the Anubhava Mantapa remained a space of experiential truth (anubhava), not social performance.
Interpretation
1.Snake-pit imitation: To slither like a snake when seeing a snake-pit is to internalize and mimic the very thing one fears or superficially admires. It is a defensive identity born of fear, not essence. Spiritually, it represents adopting religious behaviors out of social pressure or fear of exclusion, without understanding.
2.Water-snake mimicry: To mimic a water-snake’s glide is to adapt one’s behavior perfectly to a different context, but still as an imitation. This signifies the chameleon-like ability to fit into any spiritual or social setting by borrowing appropriate gestures, while having no core of one’s own.
3.Changing color: The chameleon metaphor directly indicts hypocrisy and opportunism altering one’s presentation to gain approval or avoid conflict in each “season” or under each “glance.” This fractures the self.
4.Postponing truth: Performing devotion today while delaying authentic surrender to “later” is the ultimate self-deception. It assumes spiritual progress is accumulative like a ledger, not a present-moment alignment. The vachana declares that the consequence is immediate: each false gesture becomes “the fire of your own hell,” a present karmic ignition.
Practical Implications: One must conduct a daily “authenticity audit.” Before acting, ask: “Is this an expression of my genuine understanding and feeling in this moment, or is it a performance for an internal or external audience?” Embrace the discomfort of truthful expression now, as delay only compounds the inner “fire.”
The Cosmic Reality
Anga (Human Dimension): The human as a mask-wearer. The Anga’s fundamental struggle is between the ease of conformity (mimicking the world) and the challenge of self-definition (standing in truth). Its spiritual task is to remove all masks, revealing the unique face of the Linga it inherently is.
Linga (Divine Principle): Koodalasangamadeva as the mirror of pure reality. The Linga reflects back exactly what is presented to it. A borrowed gesture is reflected as borrowed; an authentic gesture is reflected as union. It cannot be deceived by performance.
Jangama (Dynamic Interaction): The feedback loop between action and consequence. The “fire of hell” is not a later punishment but the instantaneous feedback of the universe when one acts inauthentically. The Jangama is also the transformative presence of true Sharanas, whose authenticity serves as a mirror and catalyst for others.
Shata Sthala
Primary Sthala: MAHESHWARA. This stage involves the tapas (austerity) of burning away impurities. The primary impurity here is dambha (hypocrisy) and maya (pretense). The “fire of your own hell” is precisely the purificatory fire of Maheshwara, which the pretender experiences as suffering until they choose to stop fueling it with falsehood.
Supporting Sthala: BHAKTA. The Bhakta is learning the forms of devotion. This vachana is a crucial warning: devotion must arise from genuine longing and love, not from a desire to be seen as devout. It calls the Bhakta to constantly check the source of their practice.
Practical Integration
Arivu (Awareness Practices): Practice “Witnessing the Chameleon.” In meditation, observe the mind’s tendency to craft narratives for different audiences. See the “colors” you change. Without judgment, simply acknowledge: “This is a performance.” This awareness begins to dissolve the pattern.
Achara (Personal Discipline): Institute a “Vow of Nuanced Truth.” Commit to expressing your genuine perspective in conversations, even if it is unpopular or incomplete. Abstain from exaggeration, flattery, or hiding behind spiritual clichés.
Kayaka (Sacred Action): Let your work be a signature, not a copy. Infuse your labor with your unique style and ethical stance, even if it’s less efficient. Avoid jobs that require you to fundamentally betray your values for pay (the ultimate “changing color”).
Dasoha (Communal Offering): Offer the gift of a truth-safe space. In your community, encourage vulnerable sharing. When someone shares authentically, honor it. Gently question performative statements by asking, “What does that feel like for you, really?”
Modern Application
The Curated Self and Performativity. Social media platforms incentivize a chameleon-like existence, where identity is a portfolio of desirable traits and experiences. “Spiritual branding” and “virtue signaling” are modern forms of mimicking the water-snake. The constant performance creates anxiety and depression the “fire of hell” in a digital age.
Cultivate private integrity. Engage in spiritual practices no one will ever see. Use social media to share honest struggles, not just triumphs. In workplaces, champion cultures of psychological safety where people can be genuine. Choose depth of connection over breadth of impression.
Essence
Why mimic the serpent’s fearful coil,
Or in another’s borrowed waters toil?
The color changed for every eye
Becomes the fire in which you lie.
Not later, but herethe hell is made
By every truth that you’ve delayed.
So stand unmasked, your own true face,
And meet the Divine in its own place.
This vachana describes the information-theoretic cost of dishonesty. Consciousness is a system processing self-related information. Authenticity is a state of low self-informational entropy, where the system’s output (behavior) is consistent with its internal state. Pretense creates high self-informational entropy: the system must maintain multiple, contradictory internal models (the real self and various performed selves). The energy required to maintain this high-entropy state and suppress the truth is experienced as the “fire of hell”a thermodynamic consequence of psychic disorder. The Linga represents the zero-information state of pure being, where no such maintenance is needed.
Imagine your mind is a kingdom. When the true king (your authentic self) rules, there is order and peace. When a pretender usurps the throne and must constantly perform being king, they live in fear of exposure, maintain spies, and put on shows. This exhausting, paranoid state is the “hell.” The kingdom suffers. Basavanna says: dethrone the pretender. Let the true king rule, even if the kingdom seems smaller. The peace that follows is the heaven you seek.
We wear masks because we fear rejection and believe our raw self is unworthy. This vachana confronts that fear with a stark equation: the cost of the mask is your own inner peace. It offers the liberating insight that the Divine desires the real you, not the performance. The “hell” is the isolation and exhaustion of the performance; the “heaven” is the profound relief and connection found when you finally take off the mask and are met with love first from your own awareness, then from the universe.
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