Summary
In this vachana, Basavanna defines the Sharana by refusing contradiction.
He asks four questions. Does the Sharana tie and then untie? Does the Sharana leave and then grasp again? Does the Sharana walk and then go astray? Does the Sharana speak and then fall into falsehood?
Each question expects the same answer: no. A Sharana does not live by reversal.
The teaching is not about ordinary hesitation. Basavanna is speaking of spiritual inconsistency after one has entered the path. To bind oneself and then loosen, to leave and then cling again, to walk and then deviate, to speak and then lie — these are signs of a divided life.
The final line turns severe. If sajjanike is missed, Kudalasangayya cuts the nose and teeth. Sajjanike means goodness, noble conduct, or uprightness proper to a true person. The nose-and-teeth image is an image of disgrace and sharp correction. It shows that failure in goodness cannot be hidden.
The teaching is direct: the Sharana must not oscillate between commitment and reversal, truth and falsehood, path and deviation.
Imagery & Symbolic Relevance
The first pair is tying and untying. To tie is to enter a bond, take up a commitment, or accept a discipline. To untie immediately after tying is to make commitment unstable.
The second pair is leaving and grasping. To leave means to release what must be released. To grasp again means to return to the very attachment that was abandoned. Basavanna rejects this half-renunciation.
The third pair is walking and straying. Walking means living the path, not merely speaking of it. Straying shows that the direction has been lost after movement has already begun.
The fourth pair is speaking and lying. Speech is tested by truth. If the one who speaks then falls into falsehood, speech itself becomes divided.
The word sajjanike gathers these examples into one moral-spiritual measure. It is not merely politeness or public respectability. It is the upright condition in which word, conduct, and commitment do not contradict one another.
The nose-and-teeth image completes the warning. Nose and teeth are visible parts of the face. Their cutting or breaking suggests open disgrace. Basavanna’s point is that the failure of goodness becomes visible; contradiction cannot remain hidden before Kudalasangayya.
Lingayoga
In Lingayoga, this vachana teaches steadiness after commitment.
The seeker should ask: after taking up the bond, do I untie it? After leaving an attachment, do I hold it again? After beginning the walk, do I turn aside? After speaking truth, do I return to falsehood?
For Sharana Sthala, the test is clear. The Sharana is not one who alternates between two centers. The Sharana’s word, movement, and commitment must become steady before Kudalasangama Deva.
Editorial Commentary
The paired questions should remain central. Basavanna’s teaching is built through repetition: bind/untie, leave/grasp, walk/stray, speak/lie.
The final image should not be softened into vague “inner suffering.” The Kannada gives a sharp bodily image of disgrace and correction: nose and teeth. It should be read as a severe warning that failure in sajjanike, upright conduct, exposes the one who claims to be Sharana.
Related Vachana
Supporting Vachana
Pranalingi Sthala Vachana 691 — The One-Pointed Alignment
Pranalingi Vachana 691 supports this teaching by saying that mind, life, value, and knowing must become one. It then gives the decisive test: even if the head is broken, the body torn, and possessions lost, what matters is whether chitta, mind, and buddhi become one and do not separate again.
This supports Vachana 674 directly. Vachana 674 rejects the Sharana who ties and unties, leaves and grasps, walks and strays, speaks and lies. Vachana 691 gives the inner foundation for such steadiness: the deeper faculties must not separate. Without that one-pointedness, the outward life will oscillate.
Advancing Vachana
Aikya Sthala Vachana 875 — The Sharana Who Is Not Two
Aikya Vachana 875 advances this teaching by showing the fulfilled Sharana as one who is not caught in becoming, doubt, form, formlessness, rejection of body, or denial of life. Such a Sharana is not two.
This is the natural advancement from Vachana 674. Vachana 674 defines the Sharana by the ending of reversal in conduct. Aikya Vachana 875 shows the deeper state in which reversal has no ground because duality itself has fallen away.
Thus Vachana 674’s non-oscillation advances into Aikya as non-division. The Sharana no longer moves between opposite poles; he abides beyond comparison before Kudalasangama Deva.
