ஊன்நிலை மாறித் தான்நிலை கண்டார்
உயர்தவம் செய்தாரே
வான்நிலை கண்டே மண்நிலை விண்டே
வானவ ராவாரே
Ūnnilai māṟit tānnilai kaṇḍār
Uyar-tavam seytārē
Vānnilai kaṇḍē maṇṇilai viṇḍē
Vānava rāvārē.
Those who changed (their focus) from the state of flesh/body (ūn-nilai) and found the state of the Self (tān-nilai)
are the ones who performed the higher austerity (uyar-tavam).
Having seen the state of the sky/heaven (vān-nilai), and having split/cleft the state of earth (maṇ-nilai viṇṭē),
they themselves become the heavenly ones (vānavar).
Those who turn away from bodily identification and realize the inner ‘I’-state are the true practitioners of exalted tapas. By attaining the ‘sky-state’—the subtle, spacious plane of consciousness—and by breaking the hold of the ‘earth-state’—the dense, mortal condition bound to matter—they become like devas: dwellers in the higher, luminous mode of being.
The verse contrasts two ‘states’ (nilai): ūn (flesh, bodily condition) and tān (selfhood, the inner principle). In Siddhar idiom, this is not merely moral advice but a yogic diagnosis: ordinary awareness is lodged in the gross body (sthūla), whereas realization is the shift to the Self-principle (ātma/śiva-nilai) through sustained tapas (discipline, inner heat, yogic effort).
The second couplet uses elemental-spatial symbolism: maṇ (earth) and vān (sky/heaven). ‘Earth-state’ signifies heaviness, fixity, mortality, and bondage to the five-element body; ‘sky-state’ suggests vastness, subtlety, and liberation—also readable as the inner space (ākāśa) revealed when prāṇa is refined. “Maṇ-nilai viṇṭē” (“having split/cleft the earth-state”) can imply piercing the density of embodied consciousness—breaking the shell of material fixation—so that awareness abides in the unbounded inner sky.
Becoming “vānavar” (heavenly beings/devas) can be read in at least two Siddhar-consistent ways: (1) a post-mortem or otherworldly elevation (attaining celestial status), and (2) a transformed mode of life here and now—one who lives in a ‘heavenly’ state of consciousness, luminous, subtle, and no longer confined by gross identity. The verse keeps both readings available, typical of Siddhar cryptic pedagogy.