The Temple and the Body ( Vachana ) is a Poem written by Basavanna. The poem explores the themes of importance of Self Realization and Enlightenment. The poem was translated in English by Famous Indian, Poet, A.K Ramanujan.
Summary of The Temple and the Body Poem ( Vachana ) in English
Summary of The Temple and the Body By Basavanna
In poem, poet states that you don’t need to be rich to show devotion and faith towards God. It is not necessary to build temples for God to show devotion and faith on him. All God need is a pure heart with full of love and devotion.
The story of poem begins with poet who say Rich people can build beautiful and costly temples to impress god with their devotion, they can show their love and devotion by spending their money.
For them it is very easy to build beautiful and costly temples because they have lots of money. But how can I display my love, devotion and faith to god because I am not rich. I am just a simple poor man. I have no money to impress God.
The poet wants to express his love to God. He say, although I don’t have money to build temples for God, but my love for god is not lesser than any rich person. My body and my heart is my temple where God lives. My body is a home of my god.
My both legs are pillars of my temple, my head is a cupola of gold which is very expensive. Through this, my body is a temple of God. My body is a walking temple of god.
The poet is addressing Lord Shiva now. He say everything on earth would fall, everyone will die and fall including big beautiful temples which are built by Rich peoples but the only thing which will remain alive is a heart of truth and pure devotion. The only thing which will remain immortal is heart of purity and truth.
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English 
हिन्दी