தானமும் தக்கத் தவமதும் சிக்கத் தர்மமே காக்க
ஞானமே மிக்கக் கானமே சொக்க நடுமுனை தூக்கப்
பக்கமே ஒக்கப் பொக்கமே புக்கப் பவமெலாம் போக்கக்
குக்குகூ கூகூ கூகுகூ குக்கூ குக்குகுக் கூகூ
thaanamum thakkath thavamathum sikkath dharmamae kaakka
nyaanamae mikkak kaanamae sokka nadumunai thookka
pakkamae okkap pokkamae pukkap pavamelaam pokka
kukkukoo kookoo kookukoo kukkoo kukkuguk kookoo.
Make charity (dāna) fitting; make austerity (tapas) also take hold; protect dharma itself. Let knowledge (jñāna) be abundant; let the “forest” (kānam) be enamoured/entranced; lift up the central point/tip (nadu-munai). Make the sides equal; enter the treasure/hidden store (pokkam); remove all becoming/karmic burden (bhava). “kukkukū kūkū kūkukū kukkū kukkugu(k) kūkū.”
Let giving be rightly measured and let disciplined tapas become steady, guarding dharma as the basis. Let inner knowing grow; in the inner ‘wild’ (the body–mind’s forest) let awareness melt into absorption, and raise the median axis (the middle channel / central locus). When the two sides are brought into balance, enter the hidden treasury within, and all cycles of karmic becoming are driven off—then the inner resonance sounds on its own as “kukkukū kūkū…”.
This verse moves in a deliberate progression typical of Siddhar instruction: (1) ethical foundation, (2) ripening of insight, (3) yogic inner mechanics, and (4) the sign of fruition.
1) Ethical and stabilizing triad: “dāna… tapas… dharma.” Rather than treating charity and austerity as mere outer religion, the poet insists they must be “takka / sikka”—properly proportioned and actually established. “Dharma must be protected” can be read as protecting right conduct, restraint, and truthfulness so the inner work does not collapse into self-deception.
2) “Jñāna increases”: In Siddhar usage, jñāna is not book-learning but a ripened knowing that arises when mind and breath become subtle. The phrase “kānamē sokka” is intentionally cryptic: literally “the forest becomes charmed/entranced.” It can point to (a) the literal forest-life of the renouncer, where the mind becomes absorbed, or (b) the ‘forest’ of the body’s inner terrain—channels, organs, impulses—becoming quieted and “spellbound” under yogic absorption.
3) “Lift the central point (nadu-munai); make the sides equal”: This is strongly suggestive of subtle-body praxis. “Sides” naturally reads as the two lateral currents (often aligned with iḍā and piṅgalā). “Equalizing” them indicates balancing left/right breath and polarity so that the “middle” can be raised—i.e., prāṇa entering or being lifted through the central path (suṣumṇā / madhya nāḍi). “Nadu-munai” can also indicate a specific central locus (between-brows, heart-center, or the cranial aperture), but the verse leaves it unsaid.
4) “Enter the treasure (pokkam); remove all bhava”: “Pokkam” can mean a hoard/treasure/secret store. In Siddhar idiom it can imply the hidden inner wealth—ojas/amṛta-like essence, the ‘storehouse’ of vitality, or the guarded secret of realization. Entering that ‘treasure’ coincides with “pavam/bhava ellām pōkka”: removal of sin/karma, or more strictly the exhaustion of compulsive becoming (birth–death cycling). The end-syllables “kukkukū kūkū…” read like onomatopoeia (cuckoo-call) but can also function as a coded marker of inner nāda (anāhata sound) perceived in deep absorption; the verse ends not with argument but with a sound-sign, as if pointing to an experiential proof rather than a description.