Golden Lay Verses

Verse 389 (சித்த வைப்பு)

தமிழ் பாடல்

பக்தனடா சித்தனடா பரம யோகி

பார்பிழைக்க வேயிந்நூல் பகருகின்றேன்

பித்தனடா பித்தியவள் சித்தத் தாலே

பேயன்யான் பேத்தலிதைப் பேணிப் பார்ப்பீர்

வித்தனடா வேதனடா வேதாந்தத்தின்

வித்தையுறும் வேதையெலாம் விரிவாச் சொன்னேன்

இத்தரையிலிந்நூலைப் போலே யில்லை

இதுகண்டார் வாதமுடன் வேதை கண்டார்

Transliteration

bakthanadaa siththanadaa parama yOgi

paarpizhaikka vEyinnool pagarugiREn

piththanadaa piththiyavaL siththath thaalE

pEyan-nyaan pEththalithaip pENip paarppIr

viththanadaa vEdhanadaa vEdhaanthaththin

viththaiyuRum vEdhaiyelaam virivaas sonnEn

iththaraiyilinnoolaip pOlE yillai

ithukaNdaar vaadhamudan vEdhai kaNdaar

Literal Translation

“O devotee; O Siddha; O supreme yogi!

So that ‘pār’ may survive / so that the ‘pārppar’ may survive, I proclaim this text.

O madman! By the mind of a mad/possessed woman,

I—(as) a ‘pey’ (ghost/demon/madman)—(speak) this babbling; preserve it and examine (it).

O ‘vitthan’ (seed / fool)! O ‘vedan’ (knower of the Veda / hunter)!—of Vedānta,

All the Vedas/scriptures that yield wisdom I have spoken in expanded detail.

On this earth there is no book like this.

Whoever has seen this—has seen the Veda(s) together with vāda/vātam.”

Interpretive Translation

“You who come as devotee, Siddha, and consummate yogi—

I set down this treatise for the sake of preserving life and right understanding.

Even if I appear a ‘madman,’ even if my utterance seems like the mind of one possessed,

Even if I name myself ‘pey’—an outsider, a ghost, a wild one—still keep these words and investigate.

Here I have unfolded, in my own way, the wisdom-kernel of Vedānta and what the Vedas point toward.

In this world you will not find another text of this kind.

Whoever truly sees what is here has effectively “seen the Veda”—whether through disputation (vāda) or through mastery of the bodily winds (vātam).”

Philosophical Explanation

The verse is a self-authorizing preface framed in Siddhar paradox. The speaker hails the reader with three identities—bhakta (devotional), siddha (accomplished one), and parama-yogi (one established in the highest yoga)—suggesting that the teaching can be approached through devotion, occult-yogic discipline, or nondual realization.

A central Siddhar trope appears next: the author calls himself (and/or the addressee) “piththan” (madman) and even “pey” (ghost/demon/mad wanderer). In Siddhar literature, such labels often function as deliberate inversion: the realized one may appear socially unintelligible, intoxicated, or possessed, because ordinary norms cannot measure yogic realization. The mention of “pithiyaval sithaththāle” (by the mind of a mad/possessed woman) intensifies the theme of speech that looks like delirium but conceals method—an insistence that truth may come in forms orthodox culture dismisses.

At the same time, “pitham” and “vātam” are also technical medical categories (the Siddha/Āyurvedic humors: pitta and vāta). The poem’s repeated piththan/pithiyaval and later “vāthamudan” can be read as coded physiological language: realization is tied to regulating inner humors/winds (vāyu), transforming bodily energies through yoga, pranayama, and related siddha-chemical disciplines. Thus, the line about “seeing the Veda with vātham” can mean not only “with debate (vāda)” but also “through (knowledge of) vāta”—i.e., through embodied yogic science rather than mere scripture-quoting.

The phrase “vedāntaththin viththai” (“the seed/secret of Vedānta”) and “vētaiyellām virivāch sonnen” (“I have explained all the Vedas in detail”) is not necessarily a literal claim to exhaust the canonical Vedas; it is a Siddhar way of asserting that the essence (viththu/seed) of nondual insight and liberative method has been distilled into this work. The boast “there is no book like this on earth” functions as both a proclamation of uniqueness and a warning: the text’s value is not in conventional respectability but in its encoded praxis.

Overall, the verse holds two tensions in productive ambiguity: (1) scripture vs. embodied yogic medicine/alchemy (Veda as book vs. Veda as realized knowledge in the body), and (2) orthodoxy vs. “madness” (social legitimacy vs. siddha-transgressive authority).

Key Concepts

  • Bhakti (devotee-path)
  • Siddha identity and authority
  • Paramayoga (highest yoga)
  • Madness/outsider trope (piththan, pey) as spiritual strategy
  • Possession/delirium imagery as cryptic encoding
  • Vedānta “seed” (viththu/viththai) and essentialized scripture
  • Vedas as symbol of ultimate knowledge
  • Vāda (debate/disputation) vs. vātam (bodily wind; humor)
  • Siddha medical doctrine (pitta/vāta implications)
  • Textual uniqueness as initiatory claim

Ambiguities or Multiple Readings

  • “பார்பிழைக்க” can mean “so that the world (pār) survives” or “so that the Brahmin/orthodox ‘pārppar’ survives,” possibly with irony about teaching even those who scorn Siddhars.
  • “வேயிந்நூல்” may be read plainly as “this text,” but “வேய்” (bamboo) can hint at a ‘hollow/reed-like’ channel image (nāḍi/suṣumṇā) or a deliberately rustic/folk register.
  • “பித்தனடா / பித்தியவள்” can be moral/social (“madman,” “possessed woman”) or technical (pitta-disorder imagery), or both simultaneously.
  • “பேயன்யான்” can mean literal ghost/demon, a self-deprecating ‘mad outsider,’ or the siddha who has become ‘ungraspable’ to ordinary society.
  • “பேத்தல்” can mean babble/nonsense; it can also be a rhetorical pose: the teaching looks like incoherence until practiced.
  • “வித்தனடா” can mean “seed (viththu)”—the germ of wisdom—or “fool,” a deliberate oscillation between profundity and mockery.
  • “வேதனடா” may mean “one of the Veda / knower of the Veda,” but “வேடன்” can also mean “hunter,” allowing a double image: the seeker hunting truth.
  • “வேதை” and “வேதையெலாம்” can refer to the Vedas proper, to ‘scriptures’ broadly, or to ‘knowledge texts’ including siddha sciences.
  • “வாதமுடன்” can mean “with vāda (debate/argument)” or “with vātam (wind-humor),” enabling a contrast between intellectual disputation and embodied yogic physiology.