Summary
Basavanna repeatedly asks, “What is this?” He wonders how one became two, how two became one, and what this uninterrupted fullness is.
He supplies no explanatory doctrine. The complete mystery is surrendered to Mahadani Kudalasangama Deva, who alone knows.
Imagery & Symbolic Relevance
The vachana contains no household, bodily, natural, or mythological image. Its imagery is created through number, transformation, repetition, and unanswered questioning.
The repeated phrase “What is this? What is this?” governs all three movements. Each question begins afresh, preventing the earlier answer from becoming a settled conclusion.
The first movement asks how one became two. One indicates an undivided condition; two indicates distinction. The Kannada does not identify the members of this twofold condition. Its force lies in the arising of difference where there had been one.
The second movement reverses the direction: how did two become one? What appeared divided is now spoken of as one. Basavanna does not describe the means by which this occurs or claim to understand it.
The third question asks about avirala ghana. Avirala means unbroken, without interval, or uninterrupted. Ghana conveys compactness, density, fullness, or an undispersed totality. The expression presents fullness without gap or fragmentation.
The movement does not end merely with two becoming one. Basavanna questions even the condition called uninterrupted fullness. Thus separation, reunion, and fullness all remain before the same wondering inquiry.
The repeated questioning gives the vachana its experiential character. Basavanna does not convert what is beheld into personal knowledge or a final definition.
The address Mahadani, the Great Bestower, places the mystery under Divine giving. Whatever has appeared as one, two, one again, and uninterrupted fullness belongs to Kudalasangama Deva’s working.
The final declaration, “He Himself knows,” completes the surrender. The speaker does not claim authority over the movement he has witnessed.
The exact sequence is therefore: one becomes two; two becomes one; uninterrupted fullness is questioned; and knowledge of the whole movement is left to Kudalasangama Deva.
Lingayoga
In Lingayoga, the practitioner first experiences distinction: worshipper and Linga, practice and goal, offering and recipient. Practice may then gather these into a unified relation.
Vachana 948 asks the practitioner not to convert even this unity into personal possession. The claim “I have become one” can itself become another fixed spiritual position.
The mature movement is reverent openness before what cannot be owned through explanation. One, two, and their becoming are placed before Kudalasangama Deva rather than claimed as the practitioner’s accomplishment.
Editorial Commentary
The repeated “What is this?” is structurally essential. It governs each of the three questions.
The Kannada asks:
how one became two;
how two became one;
what the uninterrupted ghana is.
The one and two are not explicitly named. Their meaning remains open within the Kannada.
Avirala means uninterrupted or without interval.
Ghana signifies compact, undispersed fullness or density.
The final statement is declarative: Mahadani Kudalasangama Deva Himself knows.
Related Vachana
Supporting Vachana
Sharana Sthala Vachana 1382 — When Word, Mind, and Deed Become One
Sharana Vachana 1382 requires mind, word, and body to become one before Kudala Sangamayya can be pleased. It prepares the present vachana by establishing unity as lived integrity rather than verbal claim.
Vachana 948 carries that movement beyond integration in conduct. Once the divided becomes one, Basavanna questions even that becoming and leaves the uninterrupted fullness to Kudalasangama Deva’s knowing.
Advancing Vachana
Aikya Sthala Vachana 1344 — When Linga Is Anga and Anga Is Linga
Vachana 1344 gives a later, explicit expression of uninterrupted non-separation: Linga is known as Anga, Anga as Linga, Linga as Prana, and Prana as Linga. Nothing is displayed as present or sought as absent; uninterrupted Linga abides.
It advances Vachana 948 by giving an explicit Linga-centred expression to the uninterrupted condition that remains questioned here. This later vachana clarifies the advancing movement without retrospectively fixing the unnamed “one” and “two” of Vachana 948.
