வம்பிதுகாண் நம்பிடவே கம்புதரக் கம்பரிலைக்
கம்பரிலாக் காரணமே வம்பரெலாங் கூடினரே
vambidhukaaṇ nambidavē kambutharak kambarilaik
kambarilaak kāraṇamē vambarēlāṅ kūḍinarē.
“See—this is mischief/deception. In order that you may believe, they offer a ‘kambu’ (a prop/support—also possibly ‘millet’/‘bamboo’ by word-sense). The cause/reason is that it is a ‘kambu’ that is ‘without kambu’ (i.e., a support that itself lacks support / something self-contradictory). All the mischief-makers/rogues have gathered together.”
“Recognize the con: to make you place trust, they hand you some outward ‘support’ as proof. But the ‘support’ is hollow—internally unsupported and self-contradictory. Such deceptions are not the work of one person; a whole crowd of tricksters colludes to manufacture belief.”
The verse reads like a deliberately knotted utterance: repeated sounds (vampi/nampi/kambu/kambarilai) mimic the very mechanism of persuasion—rhythm and cleverness that can hypnotize discernment. The teaching points to a familiar Siddhar critique: faith can be manufactured by giving the seeker a tangible token (a “kambu”—something that looks like a stabilizing aid, proof, authority, or “evidence”). Yet the token may be structurally empty: a “support without support,” a cause that cannot truly ground what it claims to establish.
On the ethical plane, “all the rogues gathered” warns of social reinforcement: when many voices agree, the mind mistakes consensus for truth. On the yogic/philosophical plane, it is a caution against mistaking external props—ritual display, borrowed quotations, charismatic performance, or publicly validated signs—for inner attainment (experienced clarity, disciplined transformation, direct insight). The Siddhar leaves the referent of “kambu” open, allowing it to stand both for literal objects (food, staff, bamboo) and for figurative supports (doctrine, credentials, magical paraphernalia). The core discernment is viveka: what truly supports realization must be internally coherent and experientially verifiable, not merely persuasive in form.