| Vachana in English [ Commentary ] | In Kannada |
|---|---|
| ಉಳ್ಳವರು ಶಿವಾಲಯವ ಮಾಡುವರು ನಾನೇನ ಮಾಡಲಿ ಬಡವನಯ್ಯ ಎನ್ನ ಕಾಲೆ ಕಂಬ ದೇಹವೆ ದೇಗುಲ ಶಿರ ಹೊನ್ನ ಕಳಸವಯ್ಯ ಕೂಡಲ ಸಂಗಮದೇವ ಕೇಳಯ್ಯ ಸ್ಥಾವರಕ್ಕಳಿವುಂಟು ಜಂಗಮಕ್ಕಳಿವಿಲ್ಲ | Rich build temples to shiva, what can i build ? A poor man, Lord am I !, My body is the shrine Its pillars are my legs, The golden pinnacle my head Hear me, kudala sangama Lord standstill perishes, which moves alone persists |
| Vachana by Allamaprabhu |
|---|
| Having built a stone temple, And chiselled God out of stone, If you put one stone on another, Where did your God go ? He who installs the stone Linga Goes to hell, O Guheswara ! |
| These vachanas are so crystal clear that they need no further explanation. If there is a temple, it must have priest. Priests of yesteryear ruined the harmony among fellow hindus by tweaking chaturvarna system, shastras and agamas according to their needs and made temples as their means to enjoy the worldly pleasures. As swami vivekananda puts it , "Its not the problem of hinduism but its the problem with the orthodox people in it, its the fault of the priests". |
Commentary
Further reading
Basavanna's Vachana needs to be understood in the backdrop of
1. All along the history we have seen that Temples catered a particular section of people especially financially strong class and suppressed people were denied entry in the name of chaturvarna.
Basavanna who is deeply pained with the behavior of temple priests expresses a great social concern, he says Let us respect the human beings first, so what if you are denied entry to temple, here we are, the body itself is a temple, our Legs are the pillars, this body is the shrine and Head is the Golden dome.
2. Some Orthodox and traditional hindus argue that, basavanna did not condemn the temple concept but just the ill practices carried out by them.
For such, the answer lies in the last line, Basavanna says bluntly, that which is standstill will perish just like those ancient huge fortresses which remain as ruins. So this applies to Church, temples and Masjids also..., if at all mankind is progressing then all such barriers will have to be overcome, such structures will eventually fall as time passes and collective human mind becomes rational.
