Golden Lay Verses

Verse 168 (யோக வைப்பு)

தமிழ் பாடல்

ஊனிக்கில் யோகியுயிர் போகும் போக்கின்

ஒளித்துள்வெளி யாயிருக்கும் சூதம் சூதம்

யோனிக்கும் விருந்தாஞ்சை யோகம் யோகம்

உலகத்தில் யாவைக்கும் கருவாம் சோகம்

ஞானிக்கும் இதுவேதான் போகம் போகம்

நாரணியாள் வைபோக நடப்பு மாகும்

வானுக்கும் மண்ணுக்கும் பாலம் போட்டே

வாழுகின்ற தாழ்வில்லா வளமே யோகம்

Transliteration

Ūṉikkil yōgiyuyir pōgum pōkkin

Oḷittuḷveḷi yāyirukkum sūdam sūdam

Yōṉikkum virundhāñcai yōgam yōgam

Ulakaththil yāvaikkum karuvām sōgam

Ñāṉikkum idhuvēthān pōgam pōgam

Nāraṇiyāḷ vaipōga naṭappu māgum

Vāṉukkum maṇṇukkum pālam pōṭṭē

Vāḻugiṉṟa tāḻvillā vaḷamē yōgam.

Literal Translation

In the course by which the yogi’s life departs from the flesh,

within what is hidden becomes open as a space of light—sūtham, sūtham.

For the yoni, the “feast-desire” is yoga, yoga;

in the world, it is the womb/seed for everything—sōgam.

For the knower, this alone is enjoyment, enjoyment;

by Narāṇī, the movement of splendour/prosperity comes to be.

Having laid a bridge between sky and earth,

the wealth that lives without abasement is yoga.

Interpretive Translation

When the yogin learns the way life-force can leave the bodily frame (and also the way it can be redirected), the inner hiddenness reveals itself as a luminous inner-vastness. That inner essence—spoken of cryptically as “sūtham” (mercury/seed-essence)—is yoga’s operative substance.

What ordinarily rushes toward the generative organ (yoni) as appetite for pleasure is to be converted into “yoga” itself: a disciplined offering/transmutation of desire into power. In the world this same force becomes the ‘womb’ that produces all experiences, including sorrow; yet to the jñāni it is tasted as a higher enjoyment without falling.

With Śakti (named Narāṇī) presiding, prosperity and auspicious movement arise; yoga is the bridge joining ‘heaven’ and ‘earth’—the subtle and the gross—and thus becomes a dignity/wealth that does not sink into degradation.

Philosophical Explanation

1) Body as laboratory (ūn / flesh): Siddhar poetry often treats the body not as an obstacle but as the site of the Work. “The way the yogi’s life goes” can mean (a) the ordinary death-current (life leaving through lower exits), or (b) the yogic mastery of prāṇa’s pathway, where life is led upward (e.g., toward the crown) rather than dissipated.

2) “Hidden within becomes luminous space” (ஒளித்துள் வெளி): This points to an interior disclosure—an experiential ‘inner space’ (antar-ākāśa / cittākāśa) recognized as light. In Siddhar idiom this can also imply the opening of subtle channels and the emergence of a non-sensory clarity, not merely a metaphorical ‘insight’.

3) “Sūtham” (சூதம்) as cryptic technical term: In Siddha alchemy, sūtham commonly denotes mercury, the paradigmatic transformative substance—volatile, difficult to bind, yet capable (when “fixed”) of transmuting other metals and extending life. In yogic-coded verses, the same word can simultaneously point to bindu/śukra (seed-essence), mind, or a subtle vital extract. Repetition (“sūtham, sūtham”) functions as emphasis and as a sign that the term bears layered meaning.

4) Yoni and “feast-desire” (விருந்து-ஆஞ்சை): The yoni can be read literally (sexual organ/womb, the generative gate) and symbolically (source-field of manifestation, Śakti’s creative aperture). “Feast-desire” suggests craving for sensory/sexual enjoyment. Calling it “yoga” implies a reversal: desire is not indulged downward but offered, refined, and lifted—i.e., sublimation/transmutation rather than repression.

5) “Womb/seed of everything—sōgam”: The line can be read as a sober claim: worldly life is generated from a principle that also yields suffering/sorrow (sōgam). Alternatively, it can hint that even ‘sorrow’ becomes raw material—an alchemical base—through which maturation toward wisdom occurs. Siddhar logic often insists that the same force that binds (bhoga, craving) can liberate (yoga, mastery).

6) Jñāni’s “bhoga”: The jñāni’s enjoyment is not ordinary indulgence; it is the capacity to taste fullness without descent into compulsion. This is consistent with the Siddhar tendency to unite bhoga and yoga: liberation is not necessarily anti-life but anti-binding.

7) Narāṇī (Śakti) and “vaibhoga”: Narāṇī can denote the Goddess as the operative intelligence of transformation—often resonant with kuṇḍalinī-śakti. “Vaibhoga” (splendour, prosperity) is not merely external wealth; it can indicate the flourishing of siddhis, health, longevity, and inner sovereignty as a consequence of successful ‘binding’ of the volatile essence (sūtham/bindu/prāṇa).

8) “Bridge between sky and earth”: A standard yogic image for integrating opposites: subtle and gross, spirit and matter, prāṇa and apāna, ida and piṅgala, jīva and Śiva. Yoga is that bridge-work—joining what seems divided—resulting in a stable ‘wealth’ (valam) that is “without abasement,” i.e., not subject to the degradations of uncontrolled desire, decay, or social humiliation.

Key Concepts

  • yoga as transmutation (yogic-alchemical integration)
  • sūtham (mercury / seed-essence / volatile inner substance)
  • inner luminous space (antar-ākāśa / inner light)
  • yoni as generative gate and symbol of Śakti
  • sublimation of desire (turning bhoga-energy into yoga)
  • jñāni’s non-binding enjoyment (bhoga without fall)
  • Narāṇī / Śakti as guiding power (possibly kuṇḍalinī)
  • bridge between heaven and earth (union of opposites; subtle-gross integration)
  • valam (wealth/power/strength) without degradation

Ambiguities or Multiple Readings

  • “ஊனிக்கில்” can mean “in the flesh/body” or suggest the condition/edge of bodily limitation (even mortality). It may hint both at death’s pathway and yogic redirection of life-force.
  • “சூதம்” may simultaneously indicate (a) alchemical mercury, (b) sexual seed/bindu, (c) a subtle vital extract/ojas-like potency, or (d) the mind’s volatile principle; the verse likely intends layered reference rather than a single meaning.
  • “ஒளித்துள் வெளி” can be read as a mystical inner revelation (space-as-light) or as a technical yogic sign of channel-opening and prāṇic ascent.
  • “யோனிக்கும் விருந்தாஞ்சை” may mean (a) desire for sexual pleasure, (b) the ‘offering’ made to the yoni (ritual/sexual-yogic context), or (c) the ordinary craving that must be converted into yoga; the grammar allows more than one emphasis.
  • “சோகம்” usually means sorrow, but in a Siddhar-alchemical register it may also function as a coded ‘base substance’ or the worldly condition that becomes the “womb/seed” for spiritual maturation.
  • “போகம் போகம்” can be taken as endorsing enjoyment, or as redefining enjoyment as the jñāni’s unfallen fullness; the repetition can be either celebratory or re-interpretive.
  • “நாரணியாள்” can straightforwardly mean the Goddess Narāṇī, but could also be heard as a coded reference to the śakti-principle operating in the body (not merely a devotional deity).
  • “Bridge between sky and earth” may indicate metaphysical union (Śiva-Śakti), physiological integration (prāṇa-apāna; ida-piṅgala), or alchemical completion (fixing the volatile essence so it no longer ‘falls’ downward).