Golden Lay Verses

Verse 203 (ஞான வைப்பு)

தமிழ் பாடல்

காலநெறி யதையுரைப்பேன் கேளாய் கேளாய்

காணவரு மாயிரமா வருடத் துள்ளே

பாலமடா வானத்துக் கேற்ப பாதை

பகனவெடி ககனவெடி பண்ணு வார்கள்

சீலமுறும் வர்ணதர்மம் சிதைந்து போகும்

சீச்சீச்சீ வரன்முறைகள் மாறிப் போகும்

கோலமுறுங் குவலயமே சட்ட திட்டம்

கூறுமடா கொதிக்குமடா கோபம் தாபம்

Transliteration

kālaneri yathaiyuraippēn kēḷāy kēḷāy

kāṇavaru māyiramā varuṭat tuḷḷē

pālamadā vāṉattuk kēṟpa pāthai

pakanaveṭi kakanaveṭi paṇṇu vāṟkaḷ

sīlamuṟum varṇadharmam sithaintu pōkum

sīccīsī varanmuṟaikaḷ māṟip pōkum

kōlamuṟuṅ kuvalayamē saṭṭa tiṭṭam

kūṟumadā kothikkumadā kōpam thāpam.

Literal Translation

I will tell (you) the course of Time—listen, listen.

Within the coming span of a thousand years,

there will be a bridge/route suited to the sky.

They will make “sun-explosions” and “sky-explosions.”

The disciplined order of varṇa-dharma will fall apart.

“Shame, shame, shame!”—customary rules will change.

The ornamented world will be (filled with) law and regulation,

and it will proclaim; it will boil—(with) anger and heat.

Interpretive Translation

Hear the drift of the age: within a thousand-year horizon, humans will carve routes through the sky—ways of travel and conquest above the earth. They will also produce catastrophic “explosions” linked to the sun and to the sky (weapons, fire-from-above, or violent operations that turn the heavens into a theatre of blasts). As this accelerates, established social-moral frameworks (varṇa-dharma and its code of conduct) will fracture; inherited conventions will be overturned. The world will become crowded with rules, schemes, and regulations, yet the collective condition will seethe—anger rising, heat intensifying.

Philosophical Explanation

This verse reads like a Siddhar-style time-diagnosis (kāla-neṟi): a compressed prophecy of how an age transforms outer life and inner virtue.

1) Time as a moral-physiological force: In Siddhar literature, “time” is not merely chronology; it is an agency that ripens karma, social arrangements, and the body’s humoral balance. The final line (“boiling… anger and heat”) can indicate both collective temperament (krodha) and literal/medical “heat” (tāpa)—the aggravation of inner fire that manifests as unrest, feverishness, and destructive passion.

2) Sky-route imagery: “A path befitting the sky” can be read as technological ascent (aerial travel, flying machines, routes through air/space) and, simultaneously, as yogic ascent (a subtle ‘upper path’ through nāḍīs and inner space/ākāśa). Siddhars often allow both registers to coexist: outer invention mirrors inner possibility.

3) ‘Sun-explosion’ and ‘sky-explosion’ as double-coded language: On the surface these phrases evoke bombs, aerial warfare, or even disturbances associated with the sun/heavens. In a Siddha-alchemical register, “vedi” (explosive/violent operation) can suggest intense transformative procedures—calcination, sudden release of energy, or dangerous manipulations of fire (agni), metals, and breath. The warning tone implies that such powers, when pursued without ethical refinement, amplify destruction.

4) Varṇa-dharma “shattering”: The collapse of varṇa-dharma can be taken as (a) moral decay—duty and restraint dissolving—or (b) the destabilization of inherited hierarchies as history turns. Siddhar critique frequently targets rigid social identity; thus the line may carry both lament (“discipline breaks”) and exposure (“old structures cannot stand”). The repeated “chee” signals disgust at the manner of change: not a serene reform, but a disorderly overturning.

5) Law-and-scheme world: The emergence of dense “laws and plans” suggests bureaucratic governance and regulation proliferating in response to instability. The paradox is central: more rules do not cool the collective heat; instead the age still ‘boils’ with anger and tāpa—outer order without inner clarity.

Key Concepts

  • kāla-neṟi (course/law of Time)
  • ayiramā (thousand-year horizon; long-cycle prophecy)
  • vāṉattukku ēṟpa pāthai (sky-suited path: aerial/space route; yogic upper path)
  • pakan (sun) / kakan (sky, ākāśa)
  • vedi (explosion; violent operation; possible alchemical/yogic intensity)
  • varṇa-dharma (social-moral order; duty-structure)
  • varan-muraigal (customary rules/ways; tradition)
  • saṭṭa-thiṭṭam (law, regulation, schemes/plans)
  • kōpam (anger)
  • tāpa (heat; feverish affliction; inner burning)

Ambiguities or Multiple Readings

  • “Within a thousand years” can mean a literal future millennium, a symbolic long-period marker, or an ‘age-span’ rather than a precise count.
  • “Bridge/route suited to the sky” can denote airplanes/air-routes/space travel, or an inner yogic ‘path’ through subtle space (ākāśa) toward higher states.
  • “pakanavedi / kakanavedi” may refer to weapons (bombs/rockets; fire-from-above), astronomical disturbance (sun/heaven phenomena), or coded Siddha-alchemical operations involving intense ‘fire’ and sudden release of power.
  • The ‘collapse of varṇa-dharma’ can be read as moral decline (loss of discipline and virtue) or as the historical dismantling of rigid social stratifications; the verse’s lament does not fully resolve which is primary.
  • “Law and regulation” may criticize external control/bureaucracy, or may hint (by contrast) that true order must be internal (self-discipline) rather than merely institutional.
  • “Boiling—anger and heat” can indicate social violence and psychological agitation, or literal climatic/physiological heating (tāpa) consistent with Siddha medical language.