Golden Lay Verses

Verse 145 (வாத வைப்பு)

தமிழ் பாடல்

தழைத்திட்ட குலமெல்லாம் கடலின் மீதே

சலித்திட்ட நுரையின்நுண் டுளியே கண்டீர்

மழைத்திட்ட மதுவேதான் விந்து நாதம்

மணத்திட்ட வீதங்கள் கூட்டிக் கூட்டிக்

கழைத்திட்ட சுவையேற்றிக் கள்ளிப் பாலைக்

கறந்திட்டுக் குடித்தவர்க்கே வாதம் சித்தி

விழைத்திட்டம் விழலுக்கே இறைத்த வீணாம்

விழித்திட்டால் தங்கத்தின் கட்டி யாமே

Transliteration

thazhaiththitta kulamellaam kadalin meethe

saliththitta nuraiyin nuṇ thuḷiye kaṇḍeer

mazhaiththitta madhuvethaan vindhu naadham

maṇaththitta veethangaL koottik kootti

kazhaiththitta suvaiyettrik kaLLip paalaik

kaṟanththittuk kudiththavarkke vaadham siththi

vizhaiththittam vizhalukke iṟaiththa veeNaam

vizhiththittaal thangaththin katti yaame.

Literal Translation

All flourishing clans/lineages are only upon the sea;

see—(they are) but a subtle droplet of foam that has grown weary.

The liquor/nectar that has “rained down” is itself Bindu–Nāda.

Gathering together the fragrant (or mind-made) “streets/paths,” gathering and gathering,

raising/intensifying the taste/essence, (take) the milk/latex of the kaḷḷi plant,

milk it out and drink: only for the one who has drunk (it) there is “vādam-siddhi.”

For the one who merely desires, pouring offerings to ash is futile.

If you awaken, we are a lump/mass of gold.

Interpretive Translation

However great a family, tradition, or worldly prosperity appears, it is as fragile as sea-foam—momentary and insubstantial. The true “intoxicant” is the inner nectar: the yogic essence where bindu (seed/seminal essence) and nāda (inner sound) are recognized as one current. By repeatedly gathering the scattered “roads” (the mind’s outward-running sensory paths, or the body’s subtle channels) into a single convergence, one refines the inner “taste/essence” (rasa). Then the cryptic “kaḷḷi-milk” is extracted and ‘drunk’—whether as an actual Siddha preparation or as an inward appropriation of a subtle secretion—through which vāta/vāyu is mastered (or vāta disorders are resolved), yielding siddhi. External rites—mere offerings to ash—are wasted if one remains asleep in desire. If one awakens, one discovers oneself as ‘gold’: the perfected, incorruptible reality.

Philosophical Explanation

1) Impermanence and the critique of worldly identity: The opening sea-foam image collapses pride in kula (clan/lineage) and all “thriving” social continuity into a momentary froth. In Siddhar logic, what looks established is still only a transient surface effect.

2) Bindu–Nāda as inner alchemy: The line “the rained liquor is bindu–nāda” points to a yogic physiology where amṛta/madhu (nectar) ‘drips’ from a higher center and is linked to bindu (generative essence; also the lunar drop) and nāda (inner resonance). The ‘intoxicant’ is not external alcohol but the transformative inner current experienced in deep practice.

3) “Streets/paths” gathered: “Vீதங்கள்” (streets) readily reads as a metaphor for nāḍīs (subtle channels) or for the sense-roads by which the mind travels outward. “Gathering and gathering” suggests repeated pratyāhāra/dhāraṇā: collecting dispersive energies into a single axis (often implying the reconciliation of ida–piṅgala into suṣumṇā, though the verse keeps it indirect).

4) Kaḷḷi milk and rasavāda / medicine: Kaḷḷi-pāl (milk/latex/sap) is a classic Siddha double-sign: (a) an actual plant latex used in potent, sometimes caustic preparations that must be purified and skillfully administered; and/or (b) a coded reference to an internal secretion/essence (a ‘milk’) produced when bindu is conserved and transmuted. “Suvai ēṟṟi” (raising the taste/essence) fits rasāyana language: refining ‘rasa’ into a more powerful form.

5) “Vādam-siddhi”: In Siddha medical idiom, vādam is the vāta principle (wind/air) whose imbalance causes disease; in yogic idiom, it is also vāyu (prāṇa). Thus the result can be read as (a) therapeutic mastery—vāta disorders pacified; and/or (b) yogic mastery—control of prāṇa leading to siddhi.

6) Rejection of empty ritual and insistence on awakening: “Offering to ash” critiques external religiosity when driven by desire and sleep (avidyā). The culmination—“we are a lump of gold”—invokes both jñāna (the Self as pure, incorruptible) and rasavāda (gold as the emblem of perfected transformation). The verse intentionally leaves open whether “gold” is realized as consciousness, as a siddha-deha (perfected body), or as literal alchemical attainment.

Key Concepts

  • impermanence (sea-foam metaphor)
  • kula (clan/lineage) as transient identity
  • madhu/amṛta (rained nectar)
  • bindu
  • nāda (inner sound)
  • nāḍī / “vīti” (paths, channels, sense-roads)
  • pratyāhāra and dhāraṇā (gathering inward)
  • rasa / suvai (essence, taste) and rasāyana
  • kaḷḷi-pāl (cactus/toddy/latex; coded inner ‘milk’)
  • vādam (vāta/vāyu) and siddhi
  • critique of external ritual (offerings to ash)
  • awakening (vizi) and “gold” (perfected, incorruptible reality)

Ambiguities or Multiple Readings

  • “kaḷḷi-pāl” may denote (1) the latex of a cactus/spurge used in Siddha pharmacopeia, (2) palm sap/toddy-related ‘milk,’ or (3) an inner yogic secretion/ojas-like essence ‘milked’ through disciplined practice.
  • “manattitta vīthangal” can mean “fragrant streets” (literal scent imagery) or “mind-made paths” (the mind’s habitual routes), and by extension the subtle nāḍīs or sensory channels.
  • “mazhaittitta madhu” (“rained liquor/nectar”) may refer to an internal ‘dripping’ amṛta experience in yoga, but can also be read as a deliberately provocative reversal of ordinary intoxication (external drink vs inner nectar).
  • “vādam-siddhi” can mean (1) curing or stabilizing vāta disorders (medical reading), (2) mastery of vāyu/prāṇa (yogic reading), or (3) acquisition of specific vāyu-based siddhis (movement, lightness, longevity).
  • “offering to ash” may critique (1) hollow ritualism in general, (2) vibhūti/ash-centered devotional practice when devoid of realization, or (3) mortuary/impermanence rites that do not yield awakening.
  • “we are a lump of gold” can be read as (1) a metaphor for realized, incorruptible awareness, (2) a claim of siddha-deha perfection, or (3) a rasavāda hint toward literal alchemical transmutation—kept intentionally undecided.