Summary
Basavanna asks why comfort should create attachment and why sorrow should cause agitation. Sweetness and blows stand for the two opposite conditions of life: what pleases and what hurts. The Sharana is not asked to deny either, but to remain free from clinging to one and fleeing from the other.
The final question gives the center of the vachana. If Kudalasangama Deva has given a role, should it not be played? The teaching is not indifference or passivity. It is faithful participation without attachment to sweetness and without fear of blows.
Imagery & Symbolic Relevance
The first image is comfort or happiness. Basavanna asks whether, when happiness comes, one should become attached to it. The problem is not happiness itself, but the binding movement of clinging.
The second image is sorrow. When sorrow comes, Basavanna asks whether one should become shaken by it. The problem is not the occurrence of sorrow, but the loss of steadiness when it appears.
The third image is sweet pudding. This is the desirable object made concrete. Sweetness represents what the mind wants to hold: pleasure, ease, honour, and fulfilment. Basavanna asks why one should cling even to what is pleasant.
The fourth image is blows. Blows represent pain, hardship, humiliation, and injury. Basavanna asks why one should run away when hardship comes. The question exposes aversion as another form of bondage.
The final image is the role given by Kudalasangama Deva. Life is not treated as a field for personal preference alone. The Sharana’s task is to play the part given by the Lord, without demanding sweetness and without refusing blows.
Lingayoga
In Lingayoga, this vachana teaches steadiness amid opposites. Pleasure and pain should not become the masters of awareness. The seeker must not let sweetness produce attachment or blows produce fear.
For Sharana Sthala, the practice-point is direct: accept the role given by Kudalasangama Deva and live it faithfully. Kayaka, conduct, remembrance, and offering must continue whether circumstances are pleasant or painful. The Sharana’s steadiness lies in the Lord, not in the changing condition.
Editorial Commentary
This vachana should not be read as emotional hardness. Basavanna is not saying that sweetness and suffering are the same in ordinary experience. He is saying that the Sharana should not be bound by either. The key is the final question: the role given by Kudalasangama Deva must be played without clinging or fleeing.
Related Vachana
Supporting Vachana
Pranalingi Sthala Vachana 1065 — The Hand That Holds Both Joy and Sorrow
Pranalingi Vachana 1065 supports this teaching by showing that joy and sorrow are both close at hand within the same field of life. There, Basavanna sees the instability of worldly experience and turns toward Kudalasangama Deva as the only true refuge. This prepares Vachana 1391 directly. In Vachana 1065, joy and sorrow are recognized as unstable companions; in Vachana 1391, Basavanna takes the next step and asks why one should cling to sweetness or flee from blows when the role has been given by Kudalasangama Deva.
Advancing Vachana
Aikya Sthala Vachana 1153 — Beyond Distinctions, Into Grace
Aikya Vachana 1153 advances this teaching by calling the seeker to accept whatever comes in equal measure. In Sharana Vachana 1391, Basavanna asks why sweetness should be clung to and blows should be fled from. In Aikya Vachana 1153, the teaching ripens into equal receiving of whatever comes, without preference or discrimination, before Kudalasangama Deva. Thus the Sharana-stage discipline of not clinging or fleeing advances into Aikya as equal acceptance grounded in wholeness.
