பித்தமது தலைக்கேறி வாதம் மாறிப்
பீழையுறும் நாடியது ஸ்லேத்ம மாகும்
சுத்தமுறுந் தவமறியார் மத்த ராவார்
சொக்கியுட லின்பத்தே மக்கிப் போவார்
தர்த்தபங்கள் கத்துவதே சகுனமென்பார்
கண்டகண்ட நூல்கண்டே மயங்குவார்கள்
உத்தமருக் கேயுரைத் தேனிந்த நூலை
உண்மையடா வுறுதியடா உன்னிப் பாராய்
piththamadhu thalaikkEri vaadham maaRip
piiLaiyuRum naadiyadhu slEthma maagum
suththamuRunh thavam aRiyaar maththa raavaar
sokkiyuda linbaththE makkip pOvaar
tharththapangaL kaththuvadhE sagunamenbaar
kaNdakaNda noolgaNdE mayanguvaargaL
uththamaruk kEyuraith thEnindha noolai
uNmaiyadaa uRudhiyadaa unnip paaraay
When pitta rises to the head and vāta shifts/changes, the nāḍi (pulse) that is felt becomes sḷētma (phlegm/kapha) that brings affliction. Those who do not know the austerity (tapas) that becomes pure will become mattar (bewildered/intoxicated). In the pleasure of the body’s comfort they will rot away. They will say that the crying/calling of the ‘tarthapangal’ is an omen. Seeing this and that book, they will be bewildered. I have spoken this treatise only for the uttamar (the excellent/fit ones). It is truth, it is certainty—reflect and see.
When inner heat (pitta) climbs to the head and the wind-principle (vāta) becomes deranged, suffering follows; even the pulse betrays a phlegmatic heaviness (sḷētma). Those who have not learned the discipline that purifies mistake confusion for knowledge: they become dull or intoxicated with appearances. Chasing bodily pleasure, they decay. They read signs in mere cries and calls—turning bird/animal noise into “omens”—and, after skimming many scattered texts, sink into further confusion. This work, the Siddhar says, is addressed only to the truly qualified; it is truth and firm certainty—examine it carefully within yourself.
The verse fuses Siddha physiology with a critique of spiritual and intellectual misdirection. On the medical side it names the tri-doṣa field—pitta (heat/bile), vāta (wind/motion), sḷētma/kapha (phlegm/cohesion)—and links a disturbed upward movement of pitta ("to the head") with a vāta shift, producing distress; the mention of nāḍi (pulse-reading) suggests that such imbalance is diagnostically legible, often presenting as kapha-like heaviness or obstruction. On the yogic/philosophical side, these doṣa dynamics can also be read as metaphors for consciousness: head-rising heat as agitation, vāta as restless fluctuation, and kapha as dullness/torpor. The Siddhar then targets three common substitutions for real purification (śuddhi): (1) lack of ‘pure tapas’—discipline that actually refines body–breath–mind—leading to ‘mattar’ (a state that can mean intoxication, delusion, or stupefaction); (2) attachment to bodily pleasure, portrayed as literal decay and also as the spiritual rotting of discrimination (viveka); (3) reliance on external signs and proliferating texts—treating cries/calls as omens and collecting “many books” without assimilation—resulting in confusion rather than certainty. The closing couplet asserts a traditional Siddha stance: the teaching is for the ‘uttamar’ (those who are ethically and mentally ripe), and its truth must be verified through ‘uṇṇip pāraai’—careful inward attention and tested experience, not mere hearsay or superstition.