Vachana 1008 — Lost in the Linga

The vachana contains no external natural or household comparison. Its imagery arises through wearing away, the ebbing of taste, envelopment, the loss of worldly recognition, bewilderment in Linga, and the grasp of grace.
The first movement concerns Anga-guṇa.
Anga is the embodied participant in relation with Linga. Guṇa means quality, trait, or determining characteristic.
Basavanna says that these Anga-qualities have worn away. The separate characteristics through which Anga identified and distinguished itself no longer hold their former position.
The second movement is more subtle: Bhakti-rasa has ebbed.
Rasa is taste, savour, or experienced essence. Basavanna does not merely say that a devotional action has ended. The taste through which he separately knew himself as one enjoying devotion has receded.
Earlier, there could be:
the devotee,
the act of devotion,
and the rasa tasted through that devotion.
Here that separately tasted devotional condition no longer remains.
The third movement is the central image: Linga has enveloped Anga.
The active force is Linga. Anga does not expand and seize Linga; Linga surrounds, covers, and takes Anga within itself.
The image preserves both terms while changing their relation. Anga remains grammatically named, but it no longer stands outside the encompassing presence of Linga.
The verb āvarisitu, “enveloped” or “surrounded,” gives the vachana its spatial force. What had seemed to possess its own boundary is now held entirely within Linga.
Basavanna then turns toward loka-laukika.
Loka is the world or common field of life. Laukika is what belongs to ordinary worldly convention, customary understanding, and established worldly relation.
Basavanna says that he does not know what to call or make of this field. The measures by which ordinary worldly distinctions were recognized no longer provide him with clear orientation.
This is followed by the decisive self-description: Linga-bhrānta.
Bhrānta may carry bewilderment, being overtaken, or being so absorbed that ordinary orientation is lost. Joined to Linga, it describes one whose awareness has been overwhelmed by Linga.
The approved title, Lost in the Linga, expresses this condition well. Basavanna is “lost” because the former Anga-centred points of reference—bodily traits, separately tasted devotion, and worldly categories—no longer establish his position.
The final line gives the cause: Your grace has taken hold of me.
The state is not presented as Basavanna’s self-created achievement. Kudalasangamayya’s karuṇe, compassion or grace, has turned toward him and taken possession of the field.
The complete sequence is therefore exact:
Anga-guṇa wears away;
Bhakti-rasa ebbs;
Linga envelops Anga;
loka-laukika can no longer be determined;
Basavanna becomes Linga-bhrānta;
and Kudalasangamayya’s grace is the governing cause.