தலைவேறு கூல்வேறாய்ப் பிரிந்து நிற்பார்
தலைகீழாய்த் தறுதலையாய்த் தனித்து நிற்பார்
கலைவேறு கணைவேறாய்க் கழற்று வார்கள்
காண்பதுவே வீரமெனும் யோகந் தன்னில்
மலைபோலக் கருவுபல வாகக் கொள்வார்
மதமண்டிப் பால்கறந்து மகிழ்வா ரப்பா
சிலைபோலச் சிரங்கீழாய்க் கால்தூக் காமல்
சேகரத்தி லேகரமாம் கடயோ கந்தான்
thalaivERu koolvERaayp pirinthu niRpaar
thalaikeezhaayth thaRuthalaiyaayth thaniththu niRpaar
kalaivERu kaNaivERaayk kazhaRRu vaarkaL
kaaNpadhuvE veeramenum yOganh thannil
malaipOlak karuvupala vaagak koLvaar
madhamandip paalkarandhu magizhvaa rappaa
silaipOlach sirangeezhaayk kaalthook kaamal
sEkaraththi lEkaramaam kadayO kanthaan
They stand apart, separated—head separate, torso separate.
They stand alone—head downwards, as if a severed head.
They cast off (strip away) arts one by one, arrows one by one.
In that yoga called “Vīram (heroism)”, what is seen is (called) valour.
Like a mountain, they take up many “karu” (embryos/wombs/seeds).
With intoxicated swelling (rapture), they milk the milk and rejoice, alas.
Like a statue, with the head lowered, without lifting the legs,
in the “sekaram”, it is the final yoga that becomes “ekaram”.
The verse speaks in deliberately shocking images—separation of head and body, inversion, and “severing”—to point to a yogin who breaks ordinary identification and reverses the usual flow of energies. In the discipline called Vīram (a “heroic” yoga), the practitioner withdraws and redirects the inner forces (the “arrows”), discarding ordinary skills/attachments (“arts”). Through this reversal and inner churning, many subtle “seeds/embryos” (condensed essences, latent births or powers) are gathered; an intoxicating bliss arises as “milk” is extracted—an image for drawing out soma/amṛta-like nectar or refined vital essence. Remaining utterly still, statue-like, the yogin reaches the culminating state: in the “sekaram” (possibly the crest/crown), the practice resolves into “ekaram”—oneness, the single principle/syllable, the non-dual end-point of yoga.
1) “Head separate, body separate / severed head”: Siddhar texts often use violent bodily imagery to indicate a rupture in ego-identification. “Head” can stand for the discursive mind and pride; “separating” it from the body can mean separating awareness from habitual bodily/sensory compulsions, or cutting the knot of “I am the body-mind.” The phrase also keeps open the literal possibility of a perilous bodily technique, but its typical yogic force is symbolic: ego-death and dis-identification.
2) “Head downwards… alone”: Inversion can be read as a physical posture (headstand-like), but also as an inversion of the outward flow of attention and prāṇa. What normally “falls downward” (vitality, bindu/essence) is turned “upward,” and what is scattered is gathered into a single axis.
3) “Arts… arrows… cast away”: “Kalai” can mean arts/skills, but in Siddhar idiom it can also suggest subtle “kalā” (fractions/phases/powers) that diversify consciousness. “Arrow” (kaṇai) readily symbolizes prāṇa made directional—piercing, targeted, forceful. Casting them away may mean withdrawing scattered powers and sensory trajectories, or stripping away techniques once they have served (method dropped at realization).
4) “Seeing is valour in Vīram”: The “heroism” is not external conquest but the courage to face and sustain the inner vision—enduring the reversal of ordinary identity, and maintaining steady awareness through intense inner processes.
5) “Many karu… like a mountain”: “Karu” (womb/embryo/seed) can denote literal rebirth-potential, but also the subtle ‘seeds’ of tendencies (vāsanā-bīja) or the condensed essences that generate states and powers. “Like a mountain” suggests accumulation and stability: the yogin becomes a storehouse of refined potency (ojas/bindu) or gathered karmic seeds, no longer leaking outward.
6) “Milking milk… intoxicated joy”: This is a classic alchemical-yogic register. “Milk” can be ordinary milk in ritual imagery, but more often indicates soma/amṛta/nectar (cool lunar essence) drawn from an inner source and “milked” through disciplined reversal and absorption. “Intoxication” points to bliss (ānanda) or a trance-like saturation that replaces external intoxicants.
7) “Statue-like… without lifting legs”: The line evokes absolute stillness and steadiness (kumbhaka-like firmness, unwavering posture), while also hinting at a technical instruction: an inversion achieved without flinging the legs—i.e., controlled internal lift rather than brute movement. The statue simile underscores immobility as the vessel for inner distillation.
8) “Sekaram… ekaram… final yoga”: “Śekara” in Sanskrit means crest/crown; in Tamilized Siddhar usage it can point toward the crown region (sahasrāra) or the summit of experience. “Ekaram” is “oneness” and can also echo a seed-letter (a single syllable), suggesting that the end of practice is the collapse of multiplicity into the One—non-dual realization where technique and practitioner are no longer two.
Overall, the verse compresses a trajectory: (a) break identification, (b) reverse and gather energies, (c) distill nectar/essence, (d) become motionless and stable, (e) culminate in oneness at the ‘crown’—the ‘final yoga’.