அகரமுத லாமஹர வரை யிலக்கம்
அஹமென்னும் அஹங்காரத் தகந்தை யாகும்
ஓகரமுத லுற்பவமாம் பரமா ஹந்தை
ஊர்த்வமுக மாத்ருகண மார்க்கங் கண்டாய்
தகரமுத லாத்தழையும் குகையின் வித்தைத்
தாரகமே சிவராமத் தன்மை யாகும்
சிகரமுதற் சிவசிவையாம் தேவ தேவிச்
சின்மயமா மானந்தச் சித்தி யாமே
agaramutha laamahara varai yIlakkam
ahamennum ahangkaarath thagandhai yaagum
Ogaramutha luRpavamaam paramaa handhai
Urdhvamuga maathrugaNa maarkkang kaNdaay
thagaramutha laaththazhaiyum kugaiyin viththaith
thaaragame sivaraamath thanmai yaagum
sigaramuthaR sivasivaiyaam thEva thEvis
sinmayamaa maanandhach siththi yaamE
The aim (target/mark) is the syllabic sign (ilakkam) beginning with Akāra, up to “A‑ma‑hara.”
The “I” called aham becomes the cinder/slag (takandai) of ego (ahaṅkāra).
Beginning with Ōkāra, there arises the supreme I‑ness (parama‑ahantā).
You have seen the path of the upward‑facing host of Mātr̥kās.
Beginning with Takāra, [there is] the secret skill/knowledge (vittai) of the cave (guhai) that quiets/subsides.
That very Tāraka is the nature of Śiva‑rāma.
From the summit (śikhara) [is] Śiva‑Śivā—God and Goddess.
It is the blissful attainment (siddhi) that is of pure consciousness (cinmaya).
The “mark” to be hit is a mantra‑alphabet discipline: starting from the primal sound (Akāra), one reaches the state where “I‑ness” is no longer ego but is “Hara,” the remover of the false “I.”
What is ordinarily taken as aham (“I”) is only the burnt residue of ahaṅkāra; when it is “calcined,” a subtler I‑sense appears.
Through Ōkāra (a Pranava-like seed), the practitioner enters para‑ahantā—an “I‑ness” that is not personal but absolute.
The Mātr̥kās (letter‑powers / mother energies) are then traced upward—an ascent through the inner channel toward the higher centers.
The “cave‑technique” (guhai-vittai) beginning with Takāra indicates an inward turning into a secret inner space (heart-cave or cranial cave), where agitation subsides and the liberating “Tāraka” principle operates.
At the summit, Śiva and Śivā (consciousness and its power) are realized as one; that nondual union ripens as cinmaya-ānanda-siddhi, the accomplished bliss of pure awareness.
1) Letter/sound as soteriology (Mātr̥kā doctrine): The verse speaks in the idiom of tantra-yoga where phonemes are not merely linguistic but powers (śakti). “Akāra/Ōkāra/Takāra” can denote seed-sounds, stages of mantra-japa, or phases of inner resonance (nāda). “Mātr̥kā-gaṇa” suggests the ‘mothers’ as the alphabetic energies that structure body, mind, and cosmos.
2) Refinement of “I” (aham → ahaṅkāra → para-ahantā): Siddhar language often distinguishes aham (the felt ‘I’) from ahaṅkāra (egoic appropriation). Calling aham the “takandai” (cinder/slag) of ahaṅkāra is an alchemical metaphor: ego is subjected to an inner ‘fire’ (tapas); what remains is a reduced residue that can be further purified into para-ahantā—an impersonal, absolute self-presence.
3) Upward path (ūrdhva-mukha) as kuṇḍalinī/suṣumṇā ascent: “Upward-faced path” strongly implies the reversal of outward flow (pravṛtti) into inward/upward movement (nivṛtti): prāṇa and awareness rise through the central channel toward the crown. In such a reading, “seeing the path” is experiential verification rather than doctrinal knowledge.
4) The “cave” (guhā) as an interior locus: “Guhai” may point to the heart-cave (hṛdaya-guhā) where awareness rests, or the cranial cavity/cave of the head where subtle sound is heard. “The cave that subsides/quietens” suggests a method of stabilizing prāṇa and thought—quieting heat, turbulence, and discursivity. The term “vittai” marks it as a ‘secret craft,’ consistent with Siddhar cryptic pedagogy.
5) Tāraka as the liberating principle: “Tāraka” can mean a mantra that ‘ferries across’ (tāraka-mantra) or the inner sound/light that grants liberation at the threshold. Identifying it with “Śiva‑rāma” links deliverance to the nature of Śiva—either as the delight (rāma) of consciousness or as a syncretic naming that keeps the referent intentionally open.
6) Summit union (śikhara; Śiva-Śivā): The culmination is expressed as the union/identity of Śiva and Śivā (consciousness and power) at the ‘peak’—commonly read as sahasrāra/crown, but also possibly as the pinnacle of absorption (samādhi). The resulting siddhi is not a worldly power but cinmaya-ānanda: a realization where bliss is the texture of pure awareness.