யுகமாறிப் போச்சுதடா கலியு கத்தில்
யோகி யவன் நிலைமாறிப் புரண்டு போவான்
ஜகமாறிப் போச்சுதடா ஜகத்தி லுள்ளோர்
தமைமறந்தார் பொருளநினைத்தே தவிக்க லுற்றார்
அகமாறிப் போச்சுதடா காமம் கோபம்
அறுவகையாம் பேய்க்குணங்க ளதிக மாச்சே
புகல் மாறிப் போச்சுதடா மனிதற் குள்ளே
பூரணர்கள் மறைந்துள்ளா ரவரைக் காணே
yugamāṟip pōccuṭaṭā kaliyū katṯil
yōgi yavan nilaimāṟip puraṇṭu pōvāṉ
jagamāṟip pōccuṭaṭā jagatti ḻuḷḷōr
tamaimaṟantār poruḷaninaittē tavikka ḻuṟṟār
agamāṟip pōccuṭaṭā kāmam kōpam
aṟuvakaiyām pēykkuṇaṅka ḻatika māccē
pukal māṟip pōccuṭaṭā manitaṟ kuḷḷē
pūraṇarkaḷ maṟaintuḷḷā ravaraik kāṇē.
“The age has changed, my friend—in the Kali-yuga;
Even the yogi’s condition will change and be overturned.
The world has changed, my friend; those who are in the world
Have forgotten themselves; thinking only of ‘property/wealth,’ they have come to suffer.
The inner being has changed, my friend; lust and anger—
The sixfold ‘demonic’ traits have grown excessively.
The ‘refuge/way’ has changed, my friend, within human beings;
The Pūraṇars (the Perfected Ones) are hidden—one does not see them.”
In the Kali age, a general inversion has occurred: even those who should be steady in yoga are shaken. People lose self-remembrance and become distressed by fixation on possessions and worldly gain. Inner life is dominated by lust and anger, and the wider cluster of six afflictive drives swells into something like “demonic” compulsion. As a result, the true perfected Siddhas—either because they have withdrawn from view or because they are concealed within the human interior—are no longer recognized.
This verse is built as a sequence of “māṟip pōccu” (“has changed/has flipped”) applied to four domains: (1) yuga/time, (2) jagam/world/society, (3) agam/innerness, and (4) pukal (refuge/fame/recourse) inside the human.
1) Kali-yuga as a diagnosis of spiritual ecology: In Siddhar discourse, “Kali” is not merely a calendar period; it signals an environment where dharma is diluted, discernment weakens, and the senses dominate. Hence the claim that even a “yogi” is liable to have his “nilai” (state/standing) destabilized.
2) Self-forgetfulness and object-fixation: “tamaimaraṇtār” (they forgot themselves) points to loss of ātma-smṛti—forgetting the witnessing self or one’s own essential nature. “poruḷ” here reads most plainly as wealth/possessions and, more broadly, the object-world. The suffering (“tavikkal”) is presented as the natural consequence of substituting objects for self-knowledge.
3) The ‘sixfold demonic traits’: The verse explicitly names kāmam (lust/desire) and kōpam (anger) and then refers to an “aṟuvakaiyām pēy-kuṇam” (sixfold ‘ghost/demon’ qualities). This strongly echoes the pan-Indian schema of the six inner enemies (kāma, krodha, lobha, moha, mada, mātsarya), but with a Siddhar rhetorical twist: calling them “pēy” frames them as possession-like forces—compulsions that hijack the psyche, disturb prāṇa, and erode yogic steadiness.
4) “Pukal” and the hidden Perfected Ones: “pukal māṟi” can imply that the very idea of what people take as refuge has shifted—toward external validations, social status, or unreliable supports. Alternatively, if “pukal” is heard as “pukazh” (fame), the line criticizes a shift from seeking liberation to seeking reputation. The final line—“Pūraṇars are hidden; one does not see them”—can mean (a) Siddhas have gone underground/are in concealment, or (b) the ‘pūraṇam’ (the complete, perfected principle) is present within the human body-mind but remains unrecognized due to inner afflictions. Siddhar texts often preserve both readings: the historical-social (sages not visible) and the yogic-interior (perfection concealed within).