கரசர வீர மெலாம்வாசிக்
கயிற்றைக் கொண்டே கட்டிடலாம்
வரசர பூரண நித்தியமே
மனதைக் கொண்டே கட்டிடலாம்
karasara veera melaamvaasik
kayitraik konde kattidalaam
varasara poorana niththiyame
manathaik konde kattidalaam.
“(To) play the heroic drum,
with a rope itself one can tie it.
O noble king—perfect, eternal (one),
with the mind itself one can bind (it).”
Things of the outer world—even the loud ‘heroic drum’—are secured by external means like a rope. But the ‘perfect, eternal’ reality (whether understood as the Self, the Lord, or the deathless state) is not grasped by outward bindings; it is ‘bound’ only by the mind—through inward restraint, one-pointedness, and yogic attention.
The verse contrasts two kinds of “binding” (கட்டு): an external fastening versus an inner containment. A drum (மேளம்) belongs to the realm of sound, display, and outward heroism; it can be controlled with a physical tether (கயிறு). The “pūraṇa–nitya” (பூரண–நித்தியம்: fullness/completeness and eternality) points to what Siddhar literature often treats as the subtle goal: the undiminishing principle—Self-awareness, Śiva-state, or the deathless condition. Such a reality cannot be seized by mechanical force; it is approached by disciplining the mind, since the mind is the instrument that either disperses life into multiplicity or gathers it into unity. In yogic terms, ‘binding with the mind’ can imply holding attention steadily (dhāraṇā), restraining vṛtti (thought-waves), and thereby ‘securing’ prāṇa and awareness so they do not leak outward through the senses. The teaching is also a warning: the same mind that can “bind” the Eternal (hold to it through contemplation) can also be the bond that binds the practitioner to impermanence; hence mastery is internal, not merely external.