Summary
Basavanna places earth, water, fire, air, space, and the other elemental conditions within the Paramatma-Linga, the primordial support.
That Linga is inaccessible to measurement: its beginning, middle, and end are unknown. The Vedas and all scriptural authorities cannot adequately say what it is or compare it to anything else.
The vachana ends by placing this immeasurable condition before Mahanta Kudalasangama Deva.
Imagery & Symbolic Relevance
The vachana begins with a sequence of the elemental field: earth, water, fire, air, and space.
Earth is the solid and formed condition upon which embodied existence appears to stand.
Water is the fluid condition through which life is sustained and movement becomes possible.
Fire is heat, burning, light, and transformation within the manifest world.
Air is movement and the unseen current that passes through living and natural existence.
Space, or ambara, is the open field within which the other elements appear and take their places.
Basavanna gathers all five without treating any one of them as the final ground. They are all said to be within the Paramatma-Linga.
The phrase Adi-Adhara gives the central image. Adi means primordial or first; adhara means support or basis. Paramatma-Linga is therefore named as the support within which the elemental field stands.
The relation is important: the elements do not support the Linga. The Linga is the support in which they are contained.
The next sequence—beginning, middle, and end—introduces the complete temporal measure. Beginning marks arising; middle marks continuance; end marks completion or cessation.
Basavanna says that these cannot be known in relation to the Paramatma-Linga. The Linga cannot be enclosed within the temporal sequence by which ordinary things are understood.
The word agamya gives the next movement. It means inaccessible or beyond reach. The Linga is not inaccessible because it is merely distant; the instruments that attempt to reach it cannot determine its full extent.
The Veda and all Shastras appear as recognized authorities or measures of knowledge. Basavanna brings the highest scriptural instruments before the Paramatma-Linga.
Yet they cannot say of it, “It is precisely this,” or establish an adequate comparison. Their authority reaches its limit before what has no known beginning, middle, or end.
Comparison requires another thing that resembles the object being described. Paramatma-Linga has no such equal measure within the elemental or scriptural field.
The complete movement is therefore from the elements to their support, from temporal sequence to what cannot be temporally enclosed, and from scriptural authority to the incomparable Paramatma-Linga of Kudalasangama Deva.
Lingayoga
In Lingayoga, the elements of body and world are to be understood as standing within Linga, rather than as independent fields separated from sacred presence.
The practitioner’s relation to earth, water, fire, air, and space therefore becomes Linga-centred. Embodied life is not outside the primordial support in which it arises.
Study also receives its proper place. Veda and Shastra may guide understanding, but they do not replace direct Linga-relation. Knowledge matures into humility when its own limit is recognized before Kudalasangama Deva.
Editorial Commentary
Bhū, tōya, pāvaka, samīraṇa, and ambara denote earth, water, fire, air, and space.
Adi-Adhara means primordial support or original basis.
Paramatma-Linga is the Linga named here as the ground within which the elements stand.
Adi, madhya, and avasana mean beginning, middle, and end.
Agamya means inaccessible or beyond reach.
The final scriptural statement concerns the inability of Veda and the Shastras to define or compare the Paramatma-Linga adequately. The Kannada preserves their limitation without dismissing their authority altogether.
Related Vachana
Supporting Vachana
Sharana Sthala Vachana 953 — Beyond Veda, Shastra, and Argument: The Source Alone
Sharana Vachana 953 shows Veda, Shastra, Tarka, and Agama reaching the limits of their respective powers before Linga. Each names the Linga according to the point where its own access ends.
It prepares Vachana 950 by establishing that sacred systems cannot fully measure the Linga. Vachana 950 widens that teaching: not only scripture, but the entire elemental and temporal field stands within the primordial Paramatma-Linga.
Advancing Vachana
Aikya Sthala Vachana 960 — Inner and Outer, Self and World: One Alone
Vachana 950 establishes Paramatma-Linga as the primordial support of the elements and as beyond the complete measure of scripture.
Vachana 960 advances this into direct Aikya-seeing: inner and outer, self and world, no longer stand apart, while Kudalasangama Deva is known as the Adi-Adhara beyond even subtle sound and seed.
