Summary
In this vachana, Basavanna presents the mind as unwilling to examine itself. Instead of turning inward, it runs outward and examines others.
He then asks what can be done with such a mind. The question shows helplessness before a mind that avoids its own condition.
The pain deepens because this mind neither trusts nor loves the Sharanas of Kudalasangama Deva. It burns because it refuses inward seeing and remains closed to living guidance.
Imagery & Symbolic Relevance
The first image is refusal of self-examination. The mind will not look into itself. This is the root defect named in the vachana.
The second image is outward examination. The mind turns toward others instead of facing its own state. Attention is displaced.
The repeated question, “What shall I do with this mind?” shows the difficulty of governing it. Basavanna sees the problem, but the mind remains hard to hold.
The absence of trust and love toward the Sharanas shows inner closure. Even where living guidance is present, the mind does not open.
The final image is the burning mind. The burning is not caused by an outside enemy. It arises from the mind’s own refusal, outwardness, and lack of receptivity.
Lingayoga
In Lingayoga, this vachana shows that practice must begin with inward examination. A mind that only examines others cannot become steady before Kudalasangama Deva.
The Sharanas appear as the necessary field of trust and love. If the mind does not open to them, its burning continues.
The practical movement here is reversal. The mind must turn from examining others to seeing itself, and from closure to trust before the Sharanas.
Editorial Commentary
This vachana should be read as a warning against outward judgment without inward inquiry. Basavanna does not blame the world. He identifies the mind’s own refusal as the cause of its burning.
Related Vachana
Supporting Vachana
Bhakta Sthala Vachana 274 — Forget Flavor
Vachana 274 supports this teaching by addressing the mind directly and warning it against remembered sweetness, backward pull, and scattered movement. It instructs the mind to see Kudalasangama’s Sharanas as Linga and to trust that living sacred presence.
Vachana 38 carries this concern into Maheshwara Sthala as a sharper confession. Here the mind not only wanders outward; it refuses to examine itself and does not trust or love the Sharanas. What Vachana 274 gives as instruction becomes, in Vachana 38, the exposed failure that must be reversed before Kudalasangama Deva.
Advancing Vachana
Prasadi Sthala Vachana 990 — Transformed Through the Touch of Grace
Vachana 990 advances this teaching by showing the fruit of true sacred company. Through the company of Kudalasangama Deva’s Mahānubhāvas, Basavanna says that the body became pure, the mind became pure, wealth became pure, and the whole being became pure.
Vachana 38 shows the mind burning because it refuses inward examination and does not open to the Sharanas. Vachana 990 carries this into Prasadi Sthala by showing the opposite condition: when the seeker enters the company and grace of the realized ones, body, mind, wealth, and the whole being are purified.
The movement is from closed refusal to transforming company. What burns in Vachana 38 becomes purified in Vachana 990 before Kudalasangama Deva.
