கர்த்தனே கட்டில்லாதான் கற்பனை கற்பிப்பானே
அர்த்தனே யெவையுளுந்தா னசைவிலான் மாறான்நித்யன்
கர்த்தனே ஸகஜத்தானே தர்மகர் மங்கள்வேண்டான்
நிர்த்தனே நிர்த்தமில்லா நிமலனா னந்தசத்யன்
karththanē kaṭṭillāthān kaṟpanai kaṟpippānē
arththanē yevaiyuḷunthā ṉasaivilān māṟāṉnithyan
karththanē sakajaththānē dharmakar maṅgalvēṇṭān
nirththanē nirththamillā nimalanā ṉanthasathyan
O Lord (Karthan), the one without bonds, who teaches/instills “imagination” (kalpanai).
O Arthan (Meaning/Essence/Wealth), in whom whatever things exist are (contained); the unmoving one, the unchanging, the eternal.
O Lord, the one who is in sahaja (the natural state); the dharmic one / maker of dharma who does not seek “mangalam” (auspiciousness).
O Dancer (Nirthan), with a dance that is without dance; the stainless/pure one (Nimalan), the bliss-truth (Ānanda-satyan).
The Supreme—often heard here as Śiva or the inner Lord—is utterly unbound and beyond mental fabrication, yet is the very source that makes the mind’s “conceptions” arise and can instruct the seeker beyond them. All that appears is within Him; though the universe moves, He remains motionless, unchanged, and timeless. Abiding as sahaja—effortless, natural realization—He is not reached through bargaining for “auspicious outcomes” nor through mere ritual virtue. He is the cosmic Dancer who displays activity while, in truth, never departs from stillness: pure, undefiled awareness whose nature is bliss and truth.
The verse compresses a classic Siddhar/Śaiva nondual strategy: it piles up epithets that appear contradictory to force the reader beyond ordinary logic.
1) “Unbound” yet “teaches imagination”: The Absolute is said to be free of kattu (bondage/knots—often read as karma, mala, and mental fetters). Yet the same Absolute is also the ground from which kalpanai (mental constructions, names-and-forms, conceptual worlds) arise. This can be read in two complementary ways: (a) ontological—He projects or allows conceptuality; (b) pedagogical—He “teaches” by revealing the limits of imagination and turning the seeker toward direct knowing.
2) “Whatever exists is within Him; unmoving, unchanging, eternal”: This points to an advaitic containment: phenomena are not outside the Real. “Unmoving” is not physical immobility but the yogic stillness of awareness (acala), untouched by the oscillations of mind and prāṇa. “Unchanging” and “eternal” stress that time and alteration belong to appearances, not to the ground.
3) “Sahaja” and the refusal of “mangalam”: Sahaja suggests spontaneous, natural samādhi—realization that does not depend on strained practice, special occasions, or external auspicious timing. “Does not seek mangalam” can critique transactional religiosity: the Real is not an object to be appeased for good fortune, and the truly dharmic seeker is not motivated by auspicious rewards. In Siddhar idiom this often implies turning away from merely merit-based aims toward liberation.
4) “Dancer, yet without dance”: The Natarāja image is invoked and simultaneously negated. The cosmos is ‘dance’ (ceaseless manifestation), yet in the highest view there is no real movement in the Self. This is a deliberate paradox: activity belongs to the play of śakti; stillness belongs to Śiva-as-awareness. “Nimalan” (the stainless/pure) reinforces freedom from impurity (mala) and from the contaminations of desire and conceptual fixation. “Ānanda-satya” names the Real as both bliss and truth—experiential certainty rather than abstract doctrine.