Summary
Basavanna asks what ordinary reasoning can make of one overwhelmed by devotional love.
He compares this condition with a person consumed by sensual desire, who no longer calculates shame, modesty, honor, or dishonor. In the same way—but with a wholly different object of love—Basavanna has become absorbed in Kudalasangama Deva’s Sharanas.
The vachana presents devotion as an intensity that displaces concern for social judgment.
Imagery & Symbolic Relevance
Bhakti-rati joins devotion with deep loving attachment. Basavanna does not describe a calm or measured preference, but a condition powerful enough to unsettle ordinary calculation.
The reference to vikalate, being overcome or inwardly overwhelmed, shows that devotion has taken command. The speaker can no longer be adequately understood through ordinary reasoning.
The desire-driven person forms the central comparison. Such a person does not pause before shame or modesty because desire has become dominant.
The next question extends the comparison to honor and dishonor. Public approval and humiliation lose their controlling power when one passion occupies the whole mind.
Basavanna then turns the comparison toward Kudalasangama Deva’s Sharanas. He has become marula—as one mad or beside himself—through love for them.
The final question challenges the attempt to measure such devotion by ordinary standards. What appears unreasonable from outside is the result of being wholly drawn toward the Sharanas.
The movement is from devotional intensity, through the comparison with overpowering desire, to freedom from social calculation through love of the Sharanas.
Lingayoga
In Lingayoga, devotion must become stronger than concern for reputation.
The seeker commonly moderates spiritual commitment according to how it will be received by others. This vachana exposes that hesitation. When love for Kudalasangama Deva and His Sharanas becomes central, honor and dishonor no longer determine inward movement.
Sharana-sanga is not presented as casual companionship. Love for the Sharanas becomes a force that redirects the whole person.
The practice-point is to examine whether devotion remains controlled by shame, praise, criticism, or public appearance.
Editorial Commentary
The comparison with sensual desire does not equate sensual craving with devotion. Basavanna compares only their power to occupy the mind and overcome social calculation.
The word marula should not be read as clinical confusion. Within the vachana, it describes one so absorbed in love for the Sharanas that ordinary standards of dignity and reputation no longer govern him.
Related Vachana
Supporting Vachana
Sharana Sthala Vachana 387 — The Golden Spear of Praise
Sharana Vachana 387 describes praise and honor as weapons that can wound the mind. Basavanna asks Kudalasangama Deva to keep such praise away because it may strengthen self-importance.
This prepares Vachana 515 by weakening dependence upon public approval. In Sharana Vachana 387, praise is recognized as dangerous; in Vachana 515, both honor and dishonor lose authority before overpowering love for the Sharanas.
Advancing Vachana
Aikya Sthala Vachana 1245 — Beyond Praise and Blame
Vachana 515 shows devotion becoming indifferent to shame, honor, and dishonor through love for Kudalasangama Deva’s Sharanas.
Vachana 1245 deepens this freedom by placing condemnation and praise together. The condemner takes one side and the praiser another, but the Sharanas of Kudalasangama Deva remain eternally liberated.
Thus, the devotional intensity that ignores social judgment in Vachana 515 advances into the established freedom in which praise and blame cannot define the Sharana.
