Summary
Basavanna repeatedly forbids speech that separates Shiva from Vishnu and Nārāyaṇa from Hara.
The reversal of the names shows that the prohibition applies from either direction. Neither name should be used to create a separate and opposing Divine centre.
The final line gives the measure: those who do not know Kudalasangayya should not speak in this way. Knowledge of Kudalasangama Deva, not verbal division, is the ground of right speech.
Imagery & Symbolic Relevance
The opening places Shiva and Vishnu within a statement of separation and immediately rejects it with the command “Do not speak so.”
The names are then reversed: Vishnu and Shiva. This reversal prevents the instruction from being applied to only one side. Speech must not divide them from either direction.
The next pair is Nārāyaṇa and Hara. The names change, but the command remains the same. The problem is therefore not confined to one particular wording; it is the repeated habit of creating separation through sacred names.
The vachana then returns again to Shiva and Vishnu. This repetition gives firmness to the prohibition. Basavanna does not invite extended dispute over the relation between the names.
The repeated “Do not speak so” is the central action of the vachana. Speech itself is restrained before it becomes a means of religious opposition.
The final line shifts from the names to the speaker. The decisive question is whether the person speaking has known our Kudalasangayya.
Basavanna uses the severe expression “butchers” for those who speak without such knowing. The word should retain its sharpness. Their speech divides what they have not directly known.
The vachana therefore moves from opposing names, to repeated restraint of speech, and finally to the lack of knowledge from which divisive speech arises.
Lingayoga
In Lingayoga, sacred names must not become instruments of divided awareness.
The tongue may repeat Shiva, Vishnu, Nārāyaṇa, and Hara, yet repetition does not become realization when the mind continues to construct separate Divine centres.
The seeker must therefore examine the source of speech. Words arising from comparison, rivalry, or unverified certainty should be restrained.
Knowing Kudalasangama Deva is placed before speaking about the relation between sacred names. The practical direction is clear: do not allow theological speech to outrun Anubhava.
Editorial Commentary
The Kannada repeatedly rejects statements of separation. It should not be expanded into an elaborate theory concerning every possible relation between Shiva and Vishnu.
The vachana also does not resolve the matter through philosophical argument. Its movement is more direct: stop divisive speech and know Kudalasangayya.
The word translated as “butchers” is deliberately severe. It describes those who speak without knowing Kudalasangama Deva; it should not be softened into a neutral expression such as “the uninformed.”
At the same time, the word should not be expanded into an unrelated social or occupational criticism. Its force belongs to the act of dividing through speech.
Related Vachana
Sharana Sthala Vachana 209 — The Living Truth Beyond Scripture
Sharana Vachana 209 distinguishes sacred words from truth that has become lived realization. Veda, Śāstra, and revered teaching do not become final merely because they are heard or repeated; the word must become conduct, and hearing must become inward seeing.
This directly prepares Vachana 567. In Sharana, speech is tested by whether truth has become life. In Aikya Vachana 567, those who have not known Kudalasangayya are forbidden to use sacred names to create division.
What Sharana establishes as the movement from word to lived truth becomes, in Aikya, the discipline of silence before unverified theological speech.
Advancing Vachana
Aikya Sthala Vachana 1362 — Kudalasangama Deva Alone
Vachana 567 restrains those who have not known Kudalasangayya from creating division through the names Shiva, Vishnu, Narayana, and Hara.
Vachana 1362 advances this restraint into direct certainty. The Vedas declare Shiva as the Lord, source, sustainer, and dissolver of all worlds; Basavanna recognises Kudalasangama Deva alone as that One God.
Thus divisive theological speech gives way to one-pointed realization of Kudalasangama Deva.
