Summary
In this vachana, Basavanna names ten obstructions: desire, craving, inertia, falsehood, sense-hunger, crookedness, deceit, anger, pettiness, and illusion.
He asks Kudalasangama Deva to remove them from his tongue. Speech cannot become clear while these forces remain at its source.
Because of these obstructions, he cannot come near the Divine. His final prayer is that they be removed and that his five senses be made devotees.
Imagery & Symbolic Relevance
The first image is the list of ten obstructions. Basavanna does not speak vaguely of impurity. He names the forces that block nearness.
The second image is the tongue. The tongue is the place where inner condition becomes speech. If desire, falsehood, anger, and deceit remain there, speech carries their stain.
The third image is distance from Kudalasangama Deva. The distance is not caused by the Divine being far away. It is caused by the obstructions that prevent approach.
The fourth image is removal. Basavanna does not ask that these forces be hidden or softened. He asks that they be taken away.
The final image is the five senses becoming devotees. The senses are not rejected. They are to be turned toward devotion.
Together, these images show purification and reorientation. The ten obstructions must be removed from speech, and the five senses must become servants of Kudalasangama Deva.
Lingayoga
In Lingayoga, this vachana places practice at the level of speech and sense-life. The tongue must be cleared because speech reveals what is active within.
The five senses must also be changed in direction. When they serve desire and illusion, they keep the seeker away from Kudalasangama Deva.
The practical movement here is consecration. Basavanna asks not for escape from the senses, but for their transformation into devotees.
Editorial Commentary
This vachana should be read as a precise prayer for purification. Basavanna names what blocks nearness, locates its danger in speech, and asks that the same senses which may bind him be made fit for devotion.
Related Vachana
Supporting Vachana
Bhakta Sthala Vachana 97 — The Vacant Temple
Bhakta Sthala Vachana 97 supports this vachana by showing the body filled with falseness and the mind filled with sense-objects. Vachana 46 carries that condition into direct prayer: the obstructions must be removed from the tongue, and the five senses must be made devotees of Kudalasangama Deva.
Advancing Vachana
Prasadi Sthala Vachana 728 — Breath of Being
Prasadi Sthala Vachana 728 advances this movement by showing the wider consecration of life. Vachana 46 asks that speech be cleared and the five senses be made devotees. Vachana 728 carries this into Prasadi Sthala, where the mind belongs to Linga, wealth belongs to Jangama, the body belongs to Prasada, and speech remains in remembrance of Kudalasangama Deva.
