Summary
Basavanna places several recognised spiritual conditions before the unborn: those who are fearful in this world, those regarded as heroes in another world, and those who have attained Salokya, Samipya, Sarupya, or Sayujya. He asks whether any of them can equal the Ajanita—the unborn.
Kudalasangama’s Sharanas abide throughout the three worlds, yet they do not recognise the threefold division. Their condition cannot be contained by worldly fear, otherworldly greatness, or named states of liberation.
The vachana therefore places the Sharanas beyond the spiritual identities produced by attainment. They are not defined by what world they enter, how near they come, what likeness they acquire, or what union they claim.
Imagery & Symbolic Relevance
This vachana contains no material object or extended comparison. Its movement is formed through contrasts, four named liberations, a rhetorical question, and a concluding declaration about Kudalasangama’s Sharanas.
The first contrast is between those who are fearful in this world and those who are heroes in another world.
Fearfulness in this world and heroism in another remain two spiritually divided conditions. Basavanna does not accept either as the final measure of the realised person.
The expression concerning the other world also questions greatness that depends upon a different realm. A person may be regarded as heroic there, but the vachana asks whether such standing equals the unborn.
Salokya is then named. It signifies dwelling in the same world or realm as the Divine.
Samipya signifies nearness to the Divine.
Sarupya signifies likeness or correspondence of form.
Sayujya signifies conjunction or union with the Divine.
Basavanna does not deny these as recognised forms of liberation. He places all four before one decisive question: are they equal to the Ajanita?
Ajanita means the unborn or that which has not entered arising. The unborn is not produced by movement from one realm to another, by increasing nearness, by acquiring likeness, or by reaching a condition called union.
The question therefore exposes the limit of attainment-language. Every named attainment describes something reached or received. The unborn is not the product of such reaching.
The final line turns entirely toward Kudalasangama’s Sharanas. They are said to abide continuously throughout the three worlds.
Their presence is not restricted to one privileged realm. Yet, although they abide through the three worlds, they do not know the threefold division.
The line holds presence and non-division together. The Sharanas are not absent from the worlds, but the worlds do not divide their realised condition.
The Kannada does not specify a technical doctrinal triad for trividha. Its force is that the Sharana is not governed by threefold classification.
The complete sequence is precise: fear in this world, heroism in another, four forms of liberation, the unborn beyond them, and Kudalasangama’s Sharanas abiding through the worlds without threefold division.
Lingayoga
In Lingayoga, the practitioner must not turn spiritual progress into a collection of personal attainments.
Longing for a higher world, Divine nearness, likeness, or union may still preserve the thought, “I shall attain this condition.” The vachana asks the practitioner to recognise the limit of that spiritual self-measurement.
Practice must remain centred in Linga without converting its fruit into status. The practitioner should neither be ruled by fear in the present world nor build spiritual identity upon promised greatness elsewhere.
The mature direction is to live within the given world without being inwardly divided by the categories through which spiritual position is measured.
Editorial Commentary
The word kali in the opening contrast carries the sense of a hero or brave one. It should not be confused here with Kali Yuga.
The four terms—Salokya, Samipya, Sarupya, and Sayujya—should remain distinct. The vachana deliberately names the established sequence of liberation states before questioning whether they equal the unborn.
Ajanita means unborn or unoriginated. It does not refer merely to freedom from physical birth; it marks a condition not produced as a later attainment.
The final trividha should not be forced into an unsupported technical triad. The source states simply that Kudalasangama’s Sharanas do not know the threefold division.
Related Vachana
Supporting Vachana
Sharana Sthala Vachana 992 — Blessed by the Touch of the Sharana
Sharana Vachana 992 says that the joy arising through seeing and touching the feet of Kudalasangama Deva’s Sharanas cannot be described as Salokya, Samipya, Sarupya, or Sayujya.
It prepares Vachana 902, where the Sharanas themselves are shown beyond the complete framework of these named attainments.
Advancing Vachana
Aikya Sthala Vachana 903 — The Stunned Seeing
Vachana 903 shows the Sharana living without entanglement in what comes and goes, resting naturally in Kudalasangama Deva.
Thus the freedom from named attainments in Vachana 902 becomes visible as effortless, fulfilled abidance.
