Golden Lay Verses

Verse 358 (சித்த வைப்பு)

தமிழ் பாடல்

உள்ளங்கை நெல்லிபோலே யுற்றகைப் பாகம்செய்கை

உள்ளங்காண் சாரங்கட்டி யுறுமுப்பான் வாதமெட்டி

உள்ளங்கே யறையிற்செய்யும் யுமையன்னைக் கானபூசை

உள்ளந்தா னறியச்சொல்வேன் உண்மைக்கு முண்மையாமே

Transliteration

uḷḷaṅkai nellipōlē yuṟṟakaip pāgamceykai

uḷḷaṅkāṇ sāraṅkaṭṭi yuṟumuppān vādametti

uḷḷaṅkē yaṟaiyiṟceyyum yumaiyannaik kānapūcai

uḷḷantā ṉaṟiyaccolvēṉ uṇmaikku muṇmaiyāmē

Literal Translation

1) “In the inner palm, like a nelli (gooseberry) — make (it) as a hand-made portion/measure.

2) In the palm itself, having bound the ‘sāram’ (essence/sāra), it reaches (and deals with) the three-fold vātham.

3) What is compounded/ground right there in the palm (or in the inner ‘chamber’) is a worship by which Mother Uma is beheld.

4) I will say it so that the inner heart may know: for the Real, it is indeed (something) truer-than-true.”

Interpretive Translation

Prepare a small, amla-sized “portion” in the very palm—compounded by hand—so that its ‘essence’ is bound into a single unit. By that binding, the three bodily humors (vāta and its triad) are brought under control. Yet the Siddhar hints that the real rite is not merely medicinal: the “mixing in the palm / in the inner chamber” is an inward pūjā through which Śakti (Uma, the Mother) is directly ‘seen’. This is spoken so the heart itself understands; it points to a truth that precedes ordinary proof.

Philosophical Explanation

This verse deliberately fuses Siddha-medicine and inner yoga.

On the surface level, it reads like a practical instruction: a preparation is made in the palm, measured to the size of a nelli fruit (a common Siddha measure for pills/boluses). The phrase “binding the sāram” can be heard as making the active principle cohere—compressing/rolling a compound so its potency is “tied” into one form. The mention of “muppān vātham” naturally evokes the tri-doṣa framework (vāta–pitta–kapha), or at minimum “vātham” as a class of wind-disorders; the medicine is said to “reach/overcome” them.

But Siddhar diction typically uses the body as the laboratory. “Palm” (uḷḷaṅkai) can point to an interior field of practice: the hand that mixes becomes the mind that combines, and the bolus becomes the condensed “essence” of one’s own vitality. In that reading, “binding the sāram” aligns with retention and consolidation of subtle essence (ojas/bindu/sāra) rather than mere pharmacology. “Grinding/compounding in the palm” becomes a metaphor for the inner churning of breath and attention—where the practitioner refines crude tendencies into a single-pointed potency.

Uma, the Mother, signifies Śakti: the power that is both the physiological regulator and the spiritual revealer. Calling the act a “pūjā to see Uma” hints that correct internal practice is itself worship, and that its ‘result’ is darśan—direct perception—rather than only symptom-relief. The closing line (“so that the inner heart may know… truer-than-true”) marks the Siddhar’s typical move: external instruction is a veil for an inward certainty, accessible only by experiential realization.

Key Concepts

  • uḷḷaṅkai (inner palm) as measure and as inner field of practice
  • nelli (gooseberry/amla) as a standard medicinal size/measure
  • sāram / sāra (essence, active principle; possibly subtle vitality)
  • katti (binding/tying; consolidation into one potency)
  • muppān vātham (threefold humors / tri-doṣa; or vāta-class disorders)
  • aṟai (to grind/compound; also ‘chamber/room’ as inner cave)
  • Umai-annaī (Mother Uma) as Śakti/Kundalinī principle
  • pūcai (pūjā) as inward practice disguised as outer act
  • uḷḷam (inner heart/mind) as the organ of knowing
  • uṇmai (truth/reality) and experiential verification

Ambiguities or Multiple Readings

  • “nelli-pōlē” may be a literal dosage/size instruction (pill/bolus), or a symbolic cue for ‘small, dense, rounded’ condensation of inner essence.
  • “sāram” can mean medicinal ‘extract/essence’, the ‘core’ of a compound, or yogic ‘vital essence’ (ojas/bindu-like) to be retained and unified.
  • “muppān vātham” may refer broadly to the tri-doṣa balance (vāta–pitta–kapha), or more narrowly to multiple subtypes of vāta disorders; the verse does not lock the medical taxonomy.
  • “aṟaiyil seyyum” can be read as “do it by grinding” (aṟai = grind) or “do it in the chamber” (aṟai = room), enabling an ‘inner-cave’ (heart-cave) interpretation.
  • “kāna pūcai” can mean “worship to see (kāṇa) [Uma]” or can faintly echo “forest (kāṉa) worship”; the intended sense likely favors ‘to behold’, but the cryptic overlap remains.
  • The whole passage can be read as (a) a medical recipe-instruction, (b) a mudrā/hand-based yogic technique, or (c) a deliberately blended code where the pharmacological act mirrors an inner alchemical process.