Vachana 1383 – Where Is Anubhava?

The Vachana unfolds through a series of searching questions. Each question tests a different field of life and asks whether Anubhava can be present while contradiction remains.
Equanimity, Right Understanding, and True Nature
The first question brings together:
Samate—equanimity;
Sanmati—right or noble understanding;
Nijaguna—the truth of one’s inherent spiritual nature.
Anubhava cannot remain merely an inward claim while thought, feeling, and conduct continue to move without balance.
Equanimity establishes steadiness. Right understanding gives clear direction. Nijaguna brings life into agreement with its true ground.
These are not separate virtues collected for display. Together, they reveal whether realization has entered the person’s actual manner of being.
Sattva, Rajas, Tamas, and Anger
Basavanna next names Sattva, Rajas, and Tamas.
These three qualities influence perception, emotion, action, and judgment. While their movements continue to generate anger and inner agitation, Anubhava has not become the governing state.
Even Sattva can become a source of subtle superiority when it is possessed as “my purity” or “my goodness.” Rajas drives restless assertion, while Tamas clouds understanding and steadiness.
Anubhava is recognised when their fluctuating power no longer determines the person’s centre.
Self-Praise and Slander of Others
The next test concerns speech and self-regard.
Atma-stuti, praise of oneself, strengthens the one who wishes to be recognised as realised. Para-ninde, disparagement of another, creates superiority by diminishing someone else.
The two movements belong together. The person raises the self and lowers the other.
Where these continue, Anubhava remains only a claim. Genuine experience does not require the enlargement of one’s own importance or the reduction of another’s dignity.
Aversion, Falsehood, and Crooked Reasoning
Basavanna then names:
Asahya—aversion, intolerance, or the inability to receive another;
Anrita—falsehood;
Kutarka—crooked or misleading reasoning.
Aversion distorts relationship. Falsehood separates speech from truth. Crooked reasoning uses intelligence to defend what inward clarity would expose.
Anubhava must bring feeling, speech, and understanding into one truthful movement. Where these remain divided, realization has not entered the whole person.
The Six Inner Enemies
The Arishadvarga are the six inner enemies:
desire;
anger;
greed;
delusion;
pride;
jealousy.
They are called enemies because they repeatedly seize the inner field and redirect life toward possession, reaction, comparison, and self-importance.
Basavanna’s question is practical: if these forces continue to rule inwardly, where is Anubhava?
Realization must be visible in the changed authority of these movements. They can no longer govern the person as before.
The Ten Vital Currents and Disordered Apana
The Vachana also names the ten vital currents and Apana.
The reference brings the examination into embodied life. Anubhava is not confined to thought or devotional feeling; it must bring balance into the living person.
Disordered inner movement reveals that the person has not yet become integrated. The body, Prana, mind, disposition, and conduct must cease moving as unrelated fields.
Basavanna therefore places inward realization and embodied balance within the same examination.
The Vetala-Dialogue of Pride and Jealousy
The sharpest image is the dialogue between Mada and Matsara—pride and jealousy.
Their conversation is described as Vetala-samvada, a haunting or spectre-like dialogue.
Pride says, “I am greater.” Jealousy responds, “Why is the other honoured?” Each feeds the other and keeps comparison alive.
This conversation may remain hidden from outward view, yet it continually shapes perception and conduct.
Where pride and jealousy continue this haunting dialogue, Anubhava has not brought silence to the inner field.
The True State and Misconduct
Basavanna then asks whether the true state of:
equanimity;
goodness;
Samayachara;
can belong to those established in misconduct.
The question carries its answer. The true state cannot be separated from the manner in which one lives.
Durachara, misconduct, is not only the violation of an external rule. It is the contradiction between claimed experience and actual conduct.
Anubhava must become Achara. The truth realised inwardly must appear in relationship, speech, response, restraint, and responsibility.
Anubhava Among Kudalasangama’s Sharanas
The final question gathers the entire Vachana:
Other than among the Sharanas of our Kudalasangama, where is Anubhava?
Basavanna does not identify the Sharanas merely by name, dress, association, or proclamation. They are known through the transformation already tested in the preceding questions.
In them:
equanimity has become established;
understanding has become clear;
self-praise and slander have fallen away;
falsehood and crooked reasoning no longer rule;
the inner enemies have lost their authority;
pride and jealousy no longer conduct their hidden dialogue;
Anubhava has become conduct.
The Sharanas do not merely speak about experience. Their lives make it visible.