பேதமுறு வாதனைகள் வேதனைகள் பலவே
கேதமுறு மாண்டியர்க ளேபொருள் பறிக்க
ஏதமுறு சாதனைக ளோதுவது போதும்
வேதமுறு சாதனைய தேவிண்ணி லேறும்
Pēthamuru vāthanaihaḷ vēthanaihaḷ palavē
Kēthamuru māṇḍiyarka ḷēporuḷ paṟikka
Ēthamuru sāthanaiha ḷōthuvathu pōthum
Vēthamuru sāthanaiya thēviṇṇi lēṟum
The disputations/afflictions that produce division—there are many pains and torments.
Sorrow-ridden “maandiyar” (dullards/false mendicants) snatch away the “poruḷ” (the substance/wealth/meaning).
It is enough merely to recite (or rehearse) the practices that generate defect/confusion.
The practice that is “veda-muru” (Veda-formed / Veda-like / pain-cutting) rises into the divine sky.
Quarrels that multiply differences only multiply suffering. Those sunk in delusion—often posing as renunciants or teachers—rob seekers of the real essence (and sometimes their wealth). Mere repetition of flawed methods is not liberation. Only the authentic discipline that ripens into true knowing lifts one into the “divine sky”: the liberated, inner expanse where the yogic ascent is completed.
The verse is built on a deliberate sound-chain—pētha (division), kētha (grief), ētha (fault/evil), vētha (true knowing / Veda)—to show a progression from confusion to clarity. Karai Siddhar criticizes three related traps: (1) “bheda”-making argumentation or sectarian fixation, which creates mental fragmentation and therefore “vedanai” (pain); (2) exploitative or deluded figures (“maandiyar”), who “pārikkal” (snatch/rob) the seeker’s “poruḷ,” a word that can mean the teaching’s essence, lived realization, or even material resources; and (3) practice reduced to “ōthal” (recitation/rote learning), i.e., technique without inner transformation.
Against these, he points to “vētham-uṟu sādanai”: a sādhanā that becomes (or embodies) true knowledge, not merely scripture. In Siddhar usage, “the divine sky” (dey-viṇ / teviṇ) can be read outwardly as a heavenly realm, but more characteristically as an inner space—cittākāśa/brahmākāśa—reached when prāṇa and awareness ascend and stabilize (a yogic “rising” rather than a geographical afterlife). The verse therefore favors realized inner discipline over polemics, empty austerity, or textual display, while keeping the Siddhar-style ambiguity between social critique (false renunciants) and psychological critique (inner delusions that steal the essence).