ஆமப்பா மால்நாம மாயி ரந்தான்
அப்பனே ஜெபித்திட்டுப் புரண்டு பொங்கும்
வாமப்பா மைவாங்கி வைத்துக் கொண்டால்
மண்ணுலகம் முழுவதுமுன் வசமாய்ப் போகும்
தாமப்பா இதுபோலத் தருவே யில்லை
தரமப்பா தரத்தின்தா ரகமே கண்டாய்
காமப்பா காமனைகள் யாவுங் கூடும்
காணப்பா காமனையும் வெல்ல லாமே
Aamappaa maalnaama maayi ranthaan
Appanae jebiththittup purandu pongum
Vaamappaa maivaangi vaiththuk kondaal
Mannulagam muzhavathumun vasamaayp pogum
Thaamappaa ithupolath tharuvae yillai
Tharamappaa tharaththintha rakamae kandaay
Kaamappaa kaamanaigal yaavung koodum
Kaanappaa kaamanaiyum vella laamae.
Yes, father: Māl’s name is “a thousand” (the one of a thousand names).
Having chanted it, it will roll over and surge up.
If, father, you obtain the “mai” and keep it on the left,
then the entire earth-world will come under your control.
Father, nothing will bestow (a result) like this.
Know, father: you have seen the secret of what is “of the highest grade/quality.”
Father, all desire-aims will come together (be fulfilled).
See, father: you can even conquer Kāma (desire) itself.
The verse points to a mantra-practice connected with Māl (commonly Vishnu, “the Thousand-named”). Through sustained japa, an inner force is said to “turn and surge” (suggesting arousal/expansion of prāṇa or mantra-śakti). If one can “take the mai” and preserve it “on the left” (a coded instruction—possibly involving the left channel/ida, or a retained inner substance/essence, or a kept written charm), then worldly mastery and magnetism are promised. Yet the final claim is double-edged: the same attainment that draws all desired outcomes can also be used to defeat desire itself—shifting from siddhi (power) toward inner freedom.
1) Mantra-siddhi and the paradox of power: The poem offers the classic Siddhar ambiguity—worldly control (“the whole earth-world under your sway”) alongside the higher victory (“conquer Kāma”). Siddhar literature often treats siddhis as real but spiritually dangerous unless redirected toward liberation.
2) “Māl-nāmam… āyiram” (thousand names): Read plainly, it evokes Vishnu’s sahasranāma tradition: the divine name as a technology of transformation. Read more cryptically, “māl” can also mean infatuation/delusion; then “the name of delusion” hints that the practitioner is learning how desire and māyā operate by mastering their ‘mantra’—their hidden mechanism.
3) “Purandu pongum” (roll/turn and surge): Beyond emotional fervor, this can signal a yogic event: prāṇa “turning” and “rising,” mantra resonance intensifying, or kundalinī-like movement. Siddhar diction often describes internal energetic changes through physical verbs (boiling, surging, turning).
4) “Vāmam… left” and “mai”: “Left” can be merely directional, but in yogic code it often points to ida nāḍi (lunar current) and practices of containment/cooling/retention. “Mai” literally means ink/black pigment; in siddha-tantric usage it can also stand for a potent material (medicine/alchemical ingredient), a dark ‘essence,’ or a prepared charm written in ink. Thus, “buy/take the mai and keep it on the left” may encode (a) wearing/keeping a written talisman on the left side, (b) stabilizing an inner essence in the left channel, or (c) guarding a specific medicinal/alchemical substance.
5) “Secret of the highest grade” (tarattin… raga/rahasiam): The line advertises an ‘inner secret’ rather than a purely devotional hymn. In Siddhar framing, the “best grade” is often the subtle (sūkṣma) over the gross—inner practice over outer display, mastery over craving rather than indulgence.