Summary
Basavanna says that samsara is like a gust of wind. It comes and passes; it cannot be held as stable ground. Wealth is like a crowd in the marketplace. It gathers, moves, distracts, and disperses.
He therefore warns: do not trust this and fall. Forget wealth, and worship our Kudalasangama Deva. The teaching is direct: what is passing must not become the seeker’s refuge. Wealth must be seen as unstable, and worship must turn toward Kudalasangama Deva.
Imagery & Symbolic Relevance
Samsara as a gust of wind is the first image. A gust may be felt strongly, but it does not remain. Basavanna uses this image to show the instability of worldly becoming.
Wealth as a crowded marketplace is the second image. A market is full of movement, noise, bargaining, and temporary gathering. What appears active and important does not give lasting ground.
The warning “do not trust this and fall” gives the vachana its practical force. The danger is not merely that samsara and wealth are unstable. The danger is trusting them as though they were stable.
Forgetting wealth is the turning point. Basavanna does not ask the seeker to worship wealth, preserve wealth, or measure life by wealth. He asks the seeker to let wealth lose its hold.
The final instruction is worship. The mind that could be carried by samsara and crowded by wealth must turn toward Kudalasangama Deva. Worship becomes the corrective movement.
Lingayoga
In Lingayoga, the relevance of this vachana lies in the movement given by the source: samsara is seen as passing like wind, wealth as unstable like a marketplace, and the seeker is instructed not to trust them and fall.
The practice-point is direct: do not build refuge on samsara or wealth. Let wealth lose its hold, and worship Kudalasangama Deva.
Editorial Commentary
This vachana should be read as a warning against misplaced trust. Basavanna does not deny that samsara is experienced or that wealth exists. He denies their worth as final support. The gust passes, the market disperses, and one who trusts them falls. Therefore the seeker must forget wealth as refuge and turn to worship of Kudalasangama Deva.
Related Vachana
Supporting Vachana
Prasadi Sthala Vachana 507 — Free of All Wanting
Prasadi Vachana 507 supports this vachana by showing worship performed without hangu, without wanting, dependence, or expectation of return. Sharana Vachana 164 warns the seeker not to trust samsara and wealth, and asks him to worship Kudalasangama Deva after forgetting wealth. The support is direct: Prasadi teaches purity in worship without wanting; Sharana teaches the turning away from wealth and toward worship.
Advancing Vachana
Aikya Sthala Vachana 216 — The Rightful Harmony of Body, Mind, and Wealth
Aikya Vachana 216 advances this teaching by carrying the question of wealth into rightful ordering and crossing. In Sharana Vachana 164, wealth is compared to the restless crowd of a marketplace and is not to be trusted as support. In Aikya Vachana 216, body, mind, and wealth are crossed and brought into rightful harmony, so that none becomes a false center. Thus the Sharana-stage warning against trusting wealth advances into Aikya as freedom from identification with wealth and stable abiding before Kudalasangama Deva.
