Summary
Basavanna sees people presenting themselves with the attributes of Shiva: each claims the eye upon the forehead, Nandi as vehicle, and the khatvanga, skull, and trident.
When everyone outwardly assumes the signs of the Deva, he asks how Deva and Bhakta are to be distinguished.
Kudalasangama Deva’s Sharanas are svatantra—free and self-standing. Basavanna therefore asks to be called simply the bare, unadorned Basava, without borrowed insignia or spiritual display.
Imagery & Symbolic Relevance
The eye upon the forehead is the first Divine attribute. It belongs to Shiva’s distinctive form, but here each person claims it for himself.
Nandi as vehicle gives the second attribute. The vehicle associated with Shiva becomes another outward sign through which individuals present themselves as possessing Divine standing.
The khatvanga, skull, and trident complete the display. These are emblems of power, renunciation, death, and Divine authority. When carried merely as identifying signs, they can reproduce the appearance of Shiva without establishing realization.
Basavanna’s question—“Who is the Deva and who is the Bhakta?”—arises from this confusion. When the devotee dresses himself in all the attributes of the Deva, the true relation between worshipper and worshipped becomes obscured.
The question does not dismiss sacred symbols. It tests whether they reveal lived truth or merely support spiritual self-presentation.
The declaration that Kudalasangama Deva’s Sharanas are svatantra gives the correction. Their standing does not depend upon emblems, borrowed authority, institutional recognition, or outward resemblance to Shiva.
The final expression, “Call me bare Basava,” removes adornment and spiritual status. Basavanna asks to remain simply himself before Kudalasangama Deva, without using Divine insignia to enlarge his identity.
The movement is therefore from outward imitation, to confusion between Deva and Bhakta, to the freedom of the Sharanas, and finally to Basavanna’s acceptance of unadorned simplicity.
Lingayoga
In Lingayoga, sacred signs must not become substitutes for inward transformation.
The practitioner may bear Linga and honour the traditional emblems, but must not use them to claim Divine authority or spiritual superiority.
The practical measure is freedom from display. True standing arises through lived relation with Kudalasangama Deva, not through resemblance, title, or ornament.
Editorial Commentary
The opening phrase refers to the eye upon the forehead, not merely to an ordinary sectarian mark. Together with Nandi, the khatvanga, skull, and trident, it presents the full outward assumption of Shiva’s attributes.
Svatantra means free, independent, or self-standing. The Sharanas are not dependent upon borrowed symbols for their identity.
Bacchabariya Basava carries the force of bare, plain, or unadorned Basava. The final line should not be enlarged into the separate statement “I am not two,” which is not explicitly present in the Kannada.
Related Vachana
Supporting Vachana
Sharana Sthala Vachana 818 — When Action Forgets Its Source
Sharana Vachana 818 warns against those who speak of Achara, Shivachara, and Sharana-conduct while remaining in doctrine, sectarian position, or outward imitation. The conduct of Kudalasangama’s Sharanas has a living source and cannot be reproduced merely through external use.
This prepares Vachana 819 directly. Vachana 818 tests borrowed conduct; Vachana 819 tests borrowed Divine appearance. In both, outward adoption without inward realization has no secure standing.
What is rejected in Sharana as imitation of sacred conduct is stripped away in Aikya as dependence upon sacred insignia.
Advancing Vachana
Aikya Sthala Vachana 941 — See the Sahaja Sharana
Vachana 819 frees the Sharana from identity built upon Divine emblems and asks that Basavanna remain unadorned before Kudalasangama Deva.
Vachana 941 reveals the mature condition of such freedom. The Sahaja Sharana is not confined by birth and death, doubt, form or formlessness, bodily deception, or the search for another state elsewhere. He remains in uninterrupted Sahaja.
The continuation is direct: Vachana 819 removes borrowed spiritual appearance; Vachana 941 shows the Sharana whose being no longer depends upon any outward or opposing category.
Freedom from insignia thus matures into natural and uninterrupted abidance before Kudalasangama Deva.
