Why This Book and How It Came to Be
The Beginning of This Work
This book arose from a desire to understand Basavanna’s Vachanas not only as profound expressions of devotion, but as a living path of self-examination and transformation.
A Vachana may be brief, yet within a few lines it can expose fear, pride, attachment, falsehood, possessiveness, social distinction, or contradiction between what one professes and how one lives. It can awaken devotion, correct conduct, deepen awareness, transform work and relationship, and finally lead the seeker toward surrender and non-separation.
My effort has therefore been to ask of each Vachana: What is Basavanna revealing here? What condition in the human being is being addressed? What transformation is being called for? And how does that movement relate to the larger journey of Shatsthala?
The present work of 1,417 explained Vachanas grew from that inquiry.
A Philosophy Received Through Life
I, Rajendra S. Khuba, son of Late Shri Somanathappa Basavanappa Khuba, belong to Kalaburagi, Karnataka. My engagement with Basavanna’s teachings did not begin as an academic exercise. They entered my life through family, work, service, association, and lived example.
Our family’s business tradition dates to 1890. Although my forefathers were successful traders and industrialists, certain principles were placed above profit. Jowar and red gram, then staple foods of the poor, were often sold at cost so that hardship would not be increased. The family also maintained that money should not be lent merely for earning interest.
A principle that remained with me was simple:
If we have received profit or benefit from another person, we must think about how we can return to that person and to society more than what we have received.
Long before I encountered the philosophical language of Kayaka and Dasoha, I had witnessed something of their spirit in practice. Work was not understood merely as personal accumulation. Earning carried responsibility, and benefit received from society created an obligation toward society.
As our activities expanded into manufacturing, technology, sustainability, agriculture, water conservation, and food processing, the continuing question remained whether enterprise could meet human need without unnecessarily burdening people or nature.
For me, this question has never been separate from Basavanna’s teaching.
A Living Family Inheritance
My relationship with the Basava tradition is also deeply personal.
My maternal grandfather, Dr. Basappa Danappa Jatti, rose from a modest background in Karnataka to serve as Chief Minister of the former Mysore State, Governor of Odisha, Vice-President of India, and Acting President of India. Yet the significance of his life cannot be understood through public office alone.
He was deeply influenced by Basavanna’s principles of simplicity, equality, honest work, service, and human dignity. As founder-president of the Basava Samithi, he worked to carry the Vachanas and the universal philosophy of the Sharanas across regions, languages, and communities.
For him, Basavanna was not merely a historical personality to be ceremonially remembered. His teaching was a moral direction to be lived.
My mother, Dr. Vilasavathi Somanathappa Khuba, eldest daughter of Dr. B. D. Jatti and Smt. Sangavva Jatti, continued this inheritance through social service. Her work through the Kalaburagi branch of Basava Samithi brought together spiritual study, charitable activity, inter-community participation, assistance to prisoners, support for families in need, women’s gatherings, weekly lectures, and the establishment of the Anubhava Mantapa. Within it, the Dr. B. D. Jatti Vachana Adhyayana Peetha gave continuity to the study of Basavanna and the Sharanas.
I therefore encountered Basavanna not only through books, but through lives influenced by his message.
Family association brought me to the Vachanas. Their truth, however, belongs to no single family, institution, community, region, or generation.
From Sounds of Basava to the Present Work
My earlier work involved detailed explanations of 432 selected Vachanas made available through the Basava Samithi, Bengaluru. This developed into the project titled Sounds of Basava.
The original Kannada was preserved, the Vachanas were rendered through voice, and translations and explanations were prepared so that readers from different linguistic backgrounds could approach them.
On 18 January 2026, that work was dedicated to my late father, Shri Somanathappa Basavanappa Khuba.
He taught that one should live responsibly without becoming a burden upon society, earn what is reasonably required for a dignified and stable life, and return to society after one’s genuine needs have been met. In that teaching, I recognised the spirit of Kayaka and Dasoha.
The work on those 432 Vachanas also taught me an important lesson: translation alone does not reveal the complete movement of a Vachana.
The words may be understood, but a reader must also recognise the bondage being exposed, the inward contradiction being examined, the transformation being sought, and the changing relation between Anga and Linga.
That recognition led to the present work on 1,417 Vachanas.
Why Shatsthala Became the Living Map
A single Vachana may illuminate an entire life. Yet when Vachanas are read individually, the reader may not always see how one movement prepares for another.
Shatsthala offered me a way of understanding this continuity.
Bhakta, Maheshwara, Prasadi, Pranalingi, Sharana, and Aikya are not ranks of spiritual superiority. They describe movements of ripening: devotion awakens, becomes conduct, learns to receive without possession, enters Prana and daily life, matures through surrender and service, and is fulfilled in non-separation.
Aikya Sthala Vachana 1322 became particularly important to my understanding of this journey. Its expression “gently, gently” protects spiritual growth from haste, imitation, comparison, and premature claims of attainment.
Even the six Sthalas must not become new identities for the ego.
The map fulfils its purpose when it has helped the seeker walk—and no longer becomes something to possess.
The Method Followed in This Work
Each Vachana has been considered according to its principal inward movement.
I have not classified a Vachana mechanically because a particular word appears in it. The guiding question has been:
What transformation is this Vachana principally producing in the seeker?
A Vachana may naturally illuminate more than one Sthala. Where this occurs, a principal placement has been made according to its dominant movement, while related dimensions are acknowledged through Supporting Vachanas and Advancing Vachanas.
A Supporting Vachana may reveal an underlying condition, cause, or complementary understanding. An Advancing Vachana may carry that same condition toward correction, deeper realisation, surrender, or fulfilment.
These relationships are intended to help the reader see continuity. They are not meant to confine the Vachanas or imply that only one interpretation is possible.
Throughout the work, Guru, Anga, Linga, Jangama, Arivu, Achara, Kayaka, and Dasoha remain interconnected.
Arivu must become Achara.
Conduct must enter Kayaka.
Work must be truthful.
What is received must not become possession.
What is offered must not become pride.
And worship of Linga must become visible in relationship with the living Jangama.
Compassion and Conduct as the Measure
Throughout this work I have retained two governing measures.
The first is Basavanna’s declaration that compassion toward all living beings is the root of Dharma.
The second is his insistence that inner purity must become outer conduct.
These principles provide a simple test for spiritual interpretation. Knowledge, ritual, learning, devotion, sacred signs, service, and even claims of realisation lose their meaning if they become grounds for pride, discrimination, exploitation, humiliation, or indifference toward another living being.
For Basavanna, spiritual understanding must become life.
How to Approach This Book
Shatsthala should first be used as a mirror, not as a ladder for comparison.
The purpose of this work is not to enable one person to declare another spiritually higher or lower. Nor should the classifications become certificates of attainment.
The more useful questions are inward:
What is this Vachana revealing in me?
What contradiction is it exposing?
What must change in my conduct?
How does its teaching enter my work, earning, relationships, sharing, and service?
A map can indicate direction, but it cannot walk on behalf of the traveller.
The classifications and explanations offered in this book represent my sincere understanding. The original Kannada remains primary, and thoughtful corrections made in the spirit of truth, humility, evidence, and shared inquiry are always welcome.
Availability of the Complete Work
The complete work—including the Vachanas, explanations, Shatsthala classifications, supporting and advancing references, translations, Kannada audio presentations, and related material—is freely available online at:
www.soundsofbasava.in
www.khuba.in
The digital presentation allows readers to search individual Vachanas, explore their placement within the six Sthalas, listen to Kannada renderings, and consult the available explanations and translations.
The online material may continue to be refined where improved linguistic understanding, technical correction, or constructive scholarly guidance becomes available.
This work is offered in the spirit of Dasoha for spiritual, educational, and non-commercial study and sharing, with proper acknowledgement of the source and contributors.
The website can make the material accessible. Only the reader’s awareness and conduct can make it living.
Dedication
My earlier work on 432 selected Vachanas was dedicated on 18 January 2026 to my late father, Shri Somanathappa Basavanappa Khuba, whose life and words taught me that responsible earning must mature into service.
I dedicate this present work of 1,417 explained Vachanas to my late maternal grandfather, Dr. B. D. Jatti, former Vice-President and Acting President of India, founder-president of the Basava Samithi, and a lifelong messenger of Basavanna’s ideals.
This work is dedicated at Basava Samithi, Kalaburagi, on 13 September 2026.
This dedication is not made only because he was my grandfather. His life demonstrated that high constitutional responsibility and personal humility need not stand apart, and that Basavanna’s message can be carried from a village to the highest institutions of the nation without losing its simplicity.
Through this dedication, I bow to the living continuity of the tradition and to all who have preserved, interpreted, shared, and lived the Vachanas.
Acknowledgements
This work could not have developed through individual effort alone.
I offer my profound gratitude—and, in humility, the gratitude owed by succeeding generations—to Vachana Pitamaha Dr. Phakirappa Gurubasappa Halakatti, whose extraordinary labour in discovering, collecting, preserving, studying, and publishing the Vachanas helped save an immeasurable spiritual, literary, and social heritage from being lost.
At a time when Vachanas remained scattered in palm-leaf manuscripts and handwritten collections preserved in private homes, he travelled from village to village and house to house, dedicating his life, resources, and scholarship to their recovery and publication. Our ability to study the Vachanas today owes an enduring debt to that service.
My profound gratitude goes to Shri Arvind Jatti, my uncle and President of the Basava Samithi, whose guidance has been a constant source of strength throughout this journey. Over the years, he patiently helped me understand the deeper meaning and living relevance of Basavanna’s Vachanas, enabling me to approach them not merely as literary compositions but as expressions of lived Anubhava and moral direction.
I am grateful to Dr. Veeranna Dande, whose work Samanyarigagi Basava Vachana offered direction; to Shri Uddanadayya, who assisted me in understanding Kannada during my earlier work; and to Shri Veerabaswantaraya, son of Shri B. Mahadevappa Kalkam, who worked with me for many months on this project.
I am also grateful to Shri Bapu Padmanabh, with whom I worked on the earlier project Angadinda Lingada Kadege. That association helped me recognise the need for a clearer and more integrated method of explanation.
My heartfelt thanks go to Smt. Mamatha S N , who rendered the Vachanas in Kannada with devotion and repeatedly practised each composition to achieve the right flow, and to Shri Mallikarjun H., who developed and supported the digital platform. Their work, offered without expectation of remuneration or recognition, reflects the spirit of Kayaka and Dasoha.
I remain deeply grateful to my mother, Dr. Vilasavathi Somanathappa Khuba, whose life of service through Basava Samithi has been a continuing example; to my sister, Smt. Mahadevi Prasad; to my elder brother, Shri Allamaprabhu; and to all members of my family who supported this journey.
Above all, I bow to Basavanna and to the community of Sharanas whose lived Anubhava gave humanity the Vachanas.
A Prayer for the Reader
I do not ask the reader merely to agree with this book.
I ask that its direction be tested in life.
Its value will not finally be measured by how often it is read, quoted, praised, preserved, or displayed, but by whether it helps even one person become more truthful in speech, honest in work, compassionate in relationship, responsible in earning, humble in giving, and aware of the Divine presence in life.
Basavanna’s Vachanas began as living sound. They arose from Anubhava, entered the community, challenged falsehood, awakened conscience, and transformed life.
May they never become silent words resting upon a page.
May Arivu become Achara.
May Achara guide Kayaka.
May Kayaka flower into Dasoha.
May Anga turn toward Linga.
May Linga be recognised in Jangama.
May surrender mature into non-separation.
And may every reader gently discover the fearless, non-possessive and divisionless presence of Kudalasangama Deva.
Rajendra S. Khuba
Kalaburagi, Karnataka, India