சண்டாளக் கலியுகமாங் கால மிஃதே
சாதனையே வேதனையாஞ் சதிரு மிஃதே
கண்டான தேகாட்சிக் காணா தில்லை
கனவுகளும் கற்பனையும் பொய்யாம் பொய்யாம்
கொண்டான தேகோலம் புலனுக் கின்பம்
கூத்தான மின்னணுக்கள் கூட்டம் கூட்டம்
பண்டான மார்க்கமெலாம் பாழாம் பாழாம்
பாவையவள் மோஹமதே மோக்கம் மோக்கம்
caṇṭāḷak kaliyukamāṅ kāla miḵtē
cātaṉaiyē vētaṉaiyāñ catiru miḵtē
kaṇṭāṉa tēkāṭcik kāṇā tillai
kaṉavukaḷum kaṟpaṉaiyum poyyām poyyām
koṇṭāṉa tēkōlam pulaṉuk kiṉpam
kūttāṉa miṉṉaṇukkaḷ kūṭṭam kūṭṭam
paṇṭāṉa mārkkamēlām pāḻām pāḻām
pāvaiyavaḷ mōhamatē mōkkam mōkkam.
In this Chandāla-like Kali Yuga—such is the time.
Even sādhana becomes suffering—here is the stratagem / the enemy.
I have certainly seen the “deha-kāṭci” (the body’s vision).
Dreams and imaginations are false—false.
The assumed bodily form is pleasure to the senses;
A dancing one: spark-like minute particles—gatherings upon gatherings.
All the old paths are barren—barren.
That maiden’s delusion itself is mokkam—mokkam.
In the debased climate of Kali Yuga, time itself turns hostile, and even spiritual practice becomes pain and obstruction. Yet the Siddhar claims an inner seeing of the body’s true “spectacle”: what the mind calls dream and imagination is sheer falsity. The body-form that seems so desirable is only a temporary sensory delight—really a swirling “dance” of innumerable subtle particles or energies. Therefore, the inherited, conventional religious routes prove sterile. And the very enchantment that binds—figured as a “maiden” (desire/māyā/Śakti)—when rightly known, flips into liberation (mokṣa).
The verse reads like a Kali-Yuga diagnosis and a corrective method: it devalues mental projections (dream, imagination) and externalized “old paths,” while privileging direct, embodied gnosis.
1) Kali Yuga as an inner condition: “Chandāla Kali Yuga” is not only a historical age but a psychological-spiritual environment marked by pollution of discernment, distortion of aims, and the turning of disciplines into mere hardship. “Sādhana becomes suffering” implies that practices done as imitation, social identity, or ritual burden harden into pain rather than transformation.
2) Deha-kāṭci (vision of the body): The Siddhar’s pivot is experiential seeing. “Deha-kāṭci” can point to yogic interior perception—seeing the body as process, not as a self. This is compatible with Siddhar medicine/yoga where the body is investigated as a field of vāyu (winds), nāḍi (channels), sparks of prāṇa/tejas, and impermanent compounds.
3) “Spark-particles” and cosmic dance: “Miṉ-aṇukkaḷ” (minute ‘lightning’ units) can be read two ways without forcing modern physics: (a) subtle yogic/energetic “sparks” (prāṇic pulsations, bindu/tejas, inner light phenomena) perceived in meditation; (b) the body as a particulate aggregate—an early idiom of impermanence/compoundness. Calling it “kūttu” (dance) echoes the Siddhar/Śaiva imagination of reality as rhythmic movement rather than stable substance (a body-world as performance, not essence).
4) Critique of inherited mārga: “Old paths are barren” targets routes that remain external—mere ritualism, rigid scholasticism, or untransformed religiosity. It does not necessarily deny all tradition; it denies tradition-as-formula when it fails to yield direct seeing.
5) The maiden’s delusion as mokṣa: “Pāvai” (maiden/doll) can denote (a) māyā/desire that seduces the senses, (b) the body itself as a doll-like construct, or (c) Śakti/Kundalinī as the captivating feminine principle. The line’s paradox—delusion as liberation—suggests transmutation: the same force that binds, when understood, inverted, or purified, becomes the very means of release. The repetition (“mokkam mokkam”) intensifies either genuine mokṣa-affirmation or a deliberately cryptic pun on stupefaction vs liberation—leaving the reader to test which is true in lived practice.