Basava Samithi of New Zealand

Lord BASAVA taught the world, about the importance of enlightenment, work culture, democracy, human rights, gender and racial equality etc to form an egalitarian Society. He believed that God is in our duties and in our body in the form of conscience. 

The revolution of sharanas under the stewardship of Basaveshwar in the field of social reformation was an illuminating chapter in the history of 12th century Karnataka, India. They were literally the beacon lights focusing on the values of compassion and co-existence.  The philosophy of Basaveshwar in the totality possesses all the universal values, ideals and practices that one could expect of a great religion. The corpus of literature produced by Basaveshwar and sharanas in the form of “vachanas” is comparable only to the very best ever created by the human intellect. The vachanas are the simple verses in Kannada language which can be understood by the common men without difficulty. These compositions by sharanas highlight the opposition to discrimination based on race, colour, creed and gender. The other significant contribution of Basaveshwar is the concept of “Kayaka” (work) and “Dasoha”(providing prasad). These concepts would allow  the fellow beings to show the fruits of one’s honest hard labour which shows it’s concern and commitment  to society and its economic equality. At every stage be it spiritual, social, economical or intellectual, he was a rationalist and revolutionary at his core.