ஒரு வார்த்தை உலகத்தார்க் கொண்ணாத வார்த்தையடா
திரு வார்த்தை உளவறியார் சீச்சீச்சீ யென்பார்கள்
குருவார்த்தைத் தந்திரந்தான் குருமுடிமேற் கால்வைத்தே
கருவார்த்தத் தாயுடனே கலவியடா கலவியடா
oru vaarththai ulagaththaark konnaadha vaarththaiyadaa
thiru vaarththai uLavariyaar cheechcheechchee yenbaargaL
kuruvaarththai thandhirandhaan kurumudimel kaalvaiththe
karuvaarththa thaayudaney kalaviyadaa kalaviyadaa
“One word—(it is) a word the worldly people will not accept, lad.
The holy/sacred word—those who do not know its inner meaning will say ‘chee, chee, chee’ (in disgust).
The guru’s word is itself the tantra: placing the foot upon the guru’s crown (top-knot/head),
With the ‘mother’ of the embryo/seed-word—union, lad, union, lad.”
There is a single, secret ‘word’ (mantra/inner sound) that ordinary society rejects and even mocks as obscene or meaningless. Those without inner discernment recoil. Yet the guru’s instruction is the real tantra: by the guru-given method one ‘sets the foot on the crown’—i.e., raises the vital force/consciousness to the summit (crown) and there completes the hidden ‘union’ with the source-mother of the seed-sound (Śakti / the womb of mantra). The outwardly erotic language veils an inward yogic/alchemical conjunction.
The verse contrasts two epistemologies: (1) external, social hearing of words and (2) inward knowing (uḷ aṟivu) of what a ‘word’ really is in Siddhar practice. The “one word” can indicate a bīja-mantra or the subtle inner sound (nāda) that does not fit ordinary moral or linguistic categories; hence “the world” refuses it and the uninitiated respond with “chee chee” (disgust, ridicule, or moral condemnation).
“Guru-word is the tantra” shifts authority from public scripture to transmitted method (upadēśa). The phrase “placing the foot on the guru’s crown” is cryptic: it can point to a yogic ascent to the crown center (sahasrāra)—‘foot’ as a symbol of the moving power (prāṇa/kuṇḍalinī) or the act of ‘stepping’ beyond ordinary cognition; it can also suggest radical surrender to (or dependence upon) the guru’s head/crown as the seat of command.
Finally, “union with the mother of the seed-word” frames realization as a conjunction: the ‘seed-word’ (karu-vārttai: embryo/seed-syllable) arises from a ‘mother’—often Śakti, the generative power, or the womb/source of sound. “Kalavi” (union/copulation) is a standard Siddhar veil-language: it may describe an inner merging of energies (Śiva–Śakti, bindu–nāda, iḍā–piṅgalā into suṣumnā) rather than literal sexuality, while still preserving the deliberate ambiguity that invites both readings.