Golden Lay Verses

Verse 229 (ஞான வைப்பு)

தமிழ் பாடல்

வெத்துலக விதியெல்லாம் வெப்பம் தட்பம்

விஞ்ஞான விதியெல்லாம் சேர்ப்பும் கூர்ப்பும்

செத்துலக விதியெல்லாம் யாதம் கூதம்

சீவனுடல் விதியெல்லாம் காமம் கோபம்

சத்துலக விதியெல்லாம் ஸகஜம் சாந்தம்

தான்தானாத் தன்மயமாத் தழைவே தாந்தம்

சித்துலக விதிசத்தி னோடு சித்தாய்ச்

சேரனந்தத் தானந்தச் சீராம் வேராம்

Transliteration

vettulaka vithiyellaam veppam thadpam

viññāna vithiyellaam sērppum kūrppum

cettulaka vithiyellaam yātham kūtham

cīvanudal vithiyellaam kāmam kōpam

cattulaka vithiyellaam sakajam sāntam

tāntāṇāth taṇmayamāth thaḻaivē tāntam

cittulaka vithicatti nōdu cittāyc

cērananthath tānanthac cīrām vērām

Literal Translation

In the vettu-loka ("vettu world"), all laws are heat and cold.

In the vijnāna-loka ("science/knowledge world"), all laws are joining and sharpening/cutting.

In the settu-loka ("dead world"), all laws are yātam and kūtam.

In the world of the living embodied being, all laws are desire and anger.

In the sat-loka ("true/existent world"), all laws are sahaja (the natural/spontaneous state) and peace.

By itself as itself—becoming absorbed as That (tanmaya)—flourishes the tāntam.

With the law-power (vidhi-śakti) of the siddha-loka, become a siddha,

Joining to bliss—(that) self-bliss—its excellence and its root.

Interpretive Translation

He stacks “worlds” or levels of experience, each governed by a characteristic principle: the gross field is ruled by thermal opposites (heat/cold); the field of technical knowing by combining and “sharpening” (synthesis/analysis, compounding/refining); the deathly realm by obscure forces (“yātam–kūtam,” suggesting confusion, uncanny motions, or occult agitation); embodied life by passion and wrath; the truthful realm by spontaneous ease (sahaja) and peace. Beyond these, when the self rests as itself and becomes “That-absorbed” (tanmaya), the path called tāntam (tantric/inner discipline or the ‘end’ state) comes to fullness. Then, by aligning with the governing śakti of the siddha-realm, one becomes siddha, rooted in a unified bliss that is at once attained-bliss and one’s own intrinsic bliss.

Philosophical Explanation

1) A graded cosmology of tendencies (vidhi / “laws”): The verse reads like a catalogue of domains (ulagam/loka) arranged from coarse to subtle. Each domain is not merely a place but a regime of causality—what “rules” there.

2) Heat–cold as the law of the gross world: “Veppam–taṭpam” (heat–cold) can be heard literally as climate/temperature, but also as the fundamental duality governing embodied, elemental existence. In Siddha and alchemical registers, control of heat and cooling is central: cooking, calcining, subliming, and stabilizing substances (and analogically, stabilizing the body’s processes).

3) “Joining and sharpening” as the law of vijnāna: “Cērppum–kūrppum” can denote (a) combining/mixing versus cutting/refining; (b) synthesis versus analysis; (c) bonding substances versus making them subtle/keen. This suits both laboratory practice (rasavāta/rasāyana-style operations) and epistemic practice: knowledge proceeds by assembling relations and by discriminative penetration.

4) The “dead world” and the cryptic pair “yātam–kūtam”: The verse suddenly becomes opaque here, as Siddhar speech often does when pointing to post-mortem or occult strata. The pair may gesture to (a) tumult/ghostly agitation and deceptive spectacle; (b) subtle winds/forces and their erratic play; or (c) a domain where normal moral-psychological causality is suspended and one meets strange compulsions.

5) The living body governed by desire and anger: “Kāmam–kōpam” are not merely “vices” but energetic drivers tied to prāṇa, hormones, and the psyche. Siddha medicine frequently treats passions as physiological forces that heat/agitate the system; hence their placement after the ‘deathly’ realm and before the ‘true’ realm marks them as the signature bondage of embodied life.

6) Sat-loka: sahaja and peace: “Sahajam–śāntam” signals a higher, more equilibrated mode: spontaneity that is not impulsive but effortless, and peace that is not suppression but settled clarity. In yogic terms, this suggests stabilization of prāṇa and mind where virtue is not forced but natural.

7) Tanmaya and “tāntam”: “Tān-tān-āt tanmaya-āt” describes reflexive self-abidance: the self resting in itself and becoming absorbed in “That” (tattva). “Tāntam” may be heard as (a) tantra/inner method reaching fruition, or (b) ‘tāntam’ as an “end/culmination” (echoing Vedāntic language). The verse does not force a single sectarian reading; it marks a culminating interiorization.

8) Siddha-loka and vidhi-śakti: “Vidi-śakti” frames realization as alignment with a law-power, not mere belief. Becoming “siddha” is presented as entering a regime where śakti itself becomes the operative principle. The closing line ties this to ānanda: an attained union-bliss and an intrinsic self-bliss, named as both “sīr” (excellence/order) and “vēr” (root/source)—i.e., the foundational ground of the path’s fulfillment.

Key Concepts

  • ulagam/loka as layered domains of experience
  • vidhi (law, governing principle)
  • veppam–taṭpam (heat–cold duality)
  • vijnāna (knowledge/science)
  • cērppu–kūrppu (joining/compounding vs sharpening/refining; synthesis/analysis)
  • settu-loka (deathly realm)
  • yātam–kūtam (cryptic pair: agitation/occult forces/deception)
  • jīvan-uṭal (living embodied being)
  • kāmam–kōpam (desire–anger as binding forces)
  • sat-loka
  • sahaja (natural, effortless abiding)
  • śānti (peace)
  • tanmaya (absorption in That; self-abidance)
  • tāntam (tantric discipline or culmination/end-state)
  • siddha-loka
  • vidhi-śakti (law-power, operative śakti)
  • ānanda (bliss; union-bliss and self-bliss)

Ambiguities or Multiple Readings

  • “வெத்துலக” (vettu/vetthu-loka): could mean a ‘coarse/outer’ world, a ‘void/empty’ world (echoing vettuveli), or a technical category within a specific Siddhar cosmology; the verse itself only anchors it by ‘heat/cold.’
  • “சேர்ப்பும் கூர்ப்பும்” can be read as laboratory operations (compounding and sharpening/refining), epistemic methods (synthesis and analysis), or moral-psychological tendencies (attachment and harshness).
  • “செத்துலக” (settu-loka) might mean the realm of the dead, the inert/decayed state, or a tamasic/ghostly plane; the cryptic “yātam–kūtam” intensifies this uncertainty.
  • “யாதம் கூதம்” has no single stable gloss here; it may indicate confusion/tumult, occult agitation, deceptive spectacle, or subtle wind-like forces. The Siddhar idiom may intentionally obscure post-mortem mechanics.
  • “தாந்தம்” (tāntam) can suggest Tantra (method/path), Vedānta-like ‘culmination/end,’ or a specific Siddha technical term for a mature state; the surrounding “tanmaya” supports multiple compatible readings.
  • The final “சேரனந்தத் தானந்த” can be parsed as ‘joined bliss and self-bliss’ or as two graded blisses (union-bliss leading to intrinsic bliss); the line keeps both possibilities open.