Summary
In this vachana, Basavanna releases the Sharana from the habit of assigning experience to merit, sin, personal action, or another cause.
He says that when joy comes, he does not call it the fruit of merit. When sorrow comes, he does not call it the fruit of sin. Joy and sorrow are not used to build spiritual pride or guilt.
He then refuses the claim of doership. He does not say, “I have done.” He also does not place the cause elsewhere. The Sharana does not live by self-claim or by blame.
The word udāsīna gives the center of the vachana. It does not mean carelessness. It means standing apart from possessive reaction, without being seized by joy, sorrow, merit, sin, action, or causation.
The final line turns to Kudalasangama Deva’s teaching. Basavanna says that by the instruction given by the Lord, he will move through samsara. The teaching is not withdrawal from life, but a way of passing through life without ownership.
The teaching is direct: the Sharana does not claim joy, sorrow, action, merit, sin, or blame as personal possession. He moves through samsara by Kudalasangama Deva’s teaching.
Imagery & Symbolic Relevance
Joy is the first condition named. Basavanna does not treat joy as proof of merit. He refuses to turn happiness into spiritual self-approval.
Sorrow is the second condition. He does not call sorrow the fruit of sin. He refuses to turn suffering into spiritual condemnation.
Merit and sin form the first pair of measures. These are not denied as words, but they are not used here to bind every experience into reward and punishment. Basavanna loosens the mind from that habit.
The claim “I have done” is the next image. This is the voice of personal authorship. Basavanna refuses it because it keeps the self at the center of action.
The assignment of cause elsewhere is also refused. The Sharana does not escape self-claim by shifting into blame. Both claiming and blaming keep the mind bound.
Udāsīna is the inward posture of the vachana. It is steady detachment from the movements that usually seize the person: joy, sorrow, pride, guilt, action, and causation.
Samsara is the field through which the teaching must be lived. Basavanna does not say that the world disappears. He says he will move through it by the instruction of Kudalasangama Deva.
The movement of the vachana is therefore from joy and sorrow, to merit and sin, to doership and causation, to detached Sharana-standing, and finally to movement through samsara under Kudalasangama Deva’s teaching.
Lingayoga
In Lingayoga, this vachana teaches freedom from ownership while life continues.
The seeker should examine the mind’s habit of interpretation. When joy comes, does pride arise? When sorrow comes, does guilt or complaint arise? When action happens, does the thought “I did” arise? When pain comes, does blame arise?
For Sharana Sthala, the practice-point is clear: do not turn experience into self-claim. Do not turn action into ownership. Do not turn suffering into blame. Stand in the instruction of Kudalasangama Deva and move through samsara without being bound by these claims.
Editorial Commentary
This vachana should remain inward and precise. It is not fatalism, and it is not indifference to conduct. Basavanna is not saying that actions have no consequence; he is saying that the Sharana does not build identity through joy, sorrow, merit, sin, doership, or blame. The final emphasis must remain on Kudalasangama Deva’s teaching as the way through samsara.
Related Vachana
Supporting Vachana
Pranalingi Sthala Vachana 997 — The Silent Greatness of the Sharana
Pranalingi Vachana 997 supports this teaching by describing Kudalasangama Deva’s Sharanas as beings of supreme joy who remain covered by the body called karma, yet are niṣkarmi, free from karmic bondage. It also says that they are nirlepa-jñāni in the mind, unstained in knowing. This supports Vachana 695 directly. Vachana 695 refuses to bind joy, sorrow, action, and cause into personal ownership. Vachana 997 gives the supporting ground: the Sharana may remain embodied, but body, mind, and karma no longer bind the inward state.
Advancing Vachana
Aikya Sthala Vachana 1269 — Beyond Merit and Sin
Aikya Vachana 1269 directly advances this teaching by carrying freedom from karmic claim into complete Nishchinta. In Sharana Vachana 695, Basavanna does not call happiness the fruit of merit or suffering the fruit of sin; he refuses to establish a separate doer and remains unattached while living according to Kudalasangama Deva’s instruction. In Aikya Vachana 1269, even concern with merit, sin, heaven, and hell has disappeared. Having become Shiva’s Sharana and worshipped Kudalasangama Deva, Basavanna rests as pure, fulfilled, and free from anxious calculation. Thus Sharana-stage freedom from doership and karmic interpretation advances into Aikya as untroubled abidance beyond reward, punishment, and personal claim.
