Summary
In this vachana, Basavanna asks why one should take up the path only to put it down again. Devotion that rises and falls cannot become steady.
He then asks why one should make agitated bhakti, why one should blame, and why one should praise. These movements show a mind that has not become stable.
The final image is severe: one leaves the path and then runs behind the Jangama. Basavanna asks whether the mouth of such a person should not be trampled and filled with dust. The teaching is clear: inconsistency turns even sacred pursuit into self-created obstruction.
Imagery & Symbolic Relevance
The first image is taking up and putting down. This shows discontinuity. The seeker begins, but does not remain.
The second image is agitated bhakti. Devotion is present, but it is unsteady, restless, and not yet settled into firm practice.
The third image is blame. The mind turns outward in judgment.
The fourth image is praise. Praise appears opposite to blame, but both keep the mind moving outward through reaction.
The fifth image is leaving the path and running behind the Jangama. Basavanna does not reject Jangama. He rejects the inconsistency of abandoning one’s steadiness and then chasing after Jangama as though outward pursuit can replace inward continuity.
The final image is dust in the mouth. The mouth is the place of speech and intake. To fill it with dust is to show the shame and obstruction created by one’s own inconsistency.
Together, these images show spiritual discontinuity. The seeker takes up and drops, praises and blames, becomes agitated in bhakti, leaves the path, and then runs behind Jangama. Such movement does not clarify the path; it fills the mouth with dust.
Lingayoga
In Lingayoga, this vachana tests constancy. Practice cannot be something picked up and put down according to mood, excitement, or circumstance.
The relation to Jangama must not become a substitute for steadiness. The seeker must not abandon the path and then turn outward in restless pursuit.
The practical movement here is continuity. Basavanna asks the seeker to stop scattering the path through praise, blame, agitation, and inconsistency, and to remain steady before Kudalasangama Deva.
Editorial Commentary
This vachana should be read as a warning against interrupted devotion. Basavanna is not criticizing Jangama-bhakti itself. He is criticizing the unstable seeker who leaves the path and then runs behind Jangama without inward steadiness.
The dust-in-the-mouth image is important. It shows that inconsistency does not merely delay progress; it obstructs speech, taste, and direction. The seeker creates his own confusion by failing to remain continuous.
The reader should therefore see this vachana as a correction of spiritual restlessness. Devotion must not be raised and dropped, excited and forgotten, praised and blamed. It must become a steady way of living.
Related Vachana
Supporting Vachana
Bhakta Sthala Vachana 173 — Every Day Śivarātri
Bhakta Sthala Vachana 173 supports this vachana by teaching that worship must not be postponed or confined to special occasions. Every day must become Śivarātri, and worship must move quickly toward union with Kudalasangama Deva. Vachana 420 carries the same concern into Maheshwara Sthala by warning against taking up devotion and then putting it down again.
Advancing Vachana
Prasadi Sthala Vachana 787 — The Sacred Morsel
Prasadi Sthala Vachana 787 advances this movement by showing the continuity that Vachana 420 lacks. Vachana 420 warns against interrupted, restless devotion. Vachana 787 carries this into Prasadi Sthala, where remembrance remains unbroken even in ordinary bodily action, and every morsel becomes Prasada when awareness stays with Kudalasangama Deva.
