Golden Lay Verses

Verse 46 (ஆன்ம வைப்பு)

தமிழ் பாடல்

பற்று வரவுக் கணக்கேது?

பாரில் சித்தர் செய்கைக்கே

விற்று முதலாம் விளைவேது?

விண்ணுஞ் சித்தர் விறலுக்கே

வற்றிப் பாயும் வழக்கேது?

வளமாஞ் சித்தர் வழிகளிலே

நிற்றி நினைத்தால் வாதமடா

நினை வற்றாலோ போதமடா

Transliteration

Patru varavuk kanakkethu?

Paaril siddhar seygaikke

Vitru mudhalaam vilaivethu?

Vinnunj siddhar viralukke

Vattri paayum vazhakkethu?

Valamaanj siddhar vazhigalile

Nitri ninaithaal vaadamadaa

Ninai vatraalo bodhamadaa.

Literal Translation

“What is the reckoning/ledger for the ‘inflow’ of attachment?

—For the Siddhar’s doing (seykai) in this world.

What is the first ‘yield/price’ after selling?

—Even the sky is for the Siddhar’s prowess.

What is the ‘custom/practice’ of flowing even as one is dried out?

—In the paths/ways of the Siddhars who are in fullness.

If you stand and think, it is (only) debate, man;

but if thought itself dries up—then it is awakening, man.”

Interpretive Translation

“If you try to compute attachment as a profit-and-loss account, you will miss it: the Siddhar’s ‘accounting’ is done through direct practice in the world, not through mental bookkeeping.

What is the first gain from ‘selling’?—For the one who has Siddhar-power, even ‘heaven/sky’ is not a great prize.

What is the paradoxical discipline of ‘flowing while dried’?—It is found in the Siddhar ways, where the stream of life-force continues while craving and mentation dry up.

Mere standing still to think produces only argument (and agitation); when thinking itself becomes arid and ceases, awakening arises.”

Philosophical Explanation

The verse is built as a chain of riddling questions whose “answers” are placed in the next line, a common Siddhar strategy: to shift the reader from discursive reasoning to experiential recognition.

1) “Attachment’s inflow and its account” (பற்று வரவு / கணக்கு): The language evokes commerce—credits, inflows, ledgers—suggesting karmic and psychological accumulation. The poet undercuts the possibility of an intellectual audit: the only real ‘accounting’ is the Siddhar’s seykai ( செய்கை ), i.e., embodied yogic work—discipline, transmutation, and action aligned with knowing.

2) “Selling” and “first yield/price” (விற்று / முதலாம் விளை): This can point simultaneously to (a) worldly trade (profit as the first fruit), (b) renunciation—‘selling off’ possessions/ego-identities, and (c) Siddha alchemical idiom, where ‘trade’ and ‘gain’ are metaphors for converting gross into subtle (body into perfected body; poisons into medicines; base into gold-like clarity). The line “even the sky is for Siddhar prowess” reframes ‘gain’: siddhi-power can reach the heavens, yet that is still only a “first price,” not final freedom.

3) “Flowing while dried” (வற்றிப் பாயும்): A deliberate paradox. On one level it suggests the yogic state where thirst (tṛṣṇā), sense-craving, and mental proliferation dry up, while prāṇa/awareness continues to ‘flow’ without obstruction. On another level it gestures to inner alchemy: the drying of certain inner ‘fluids’ or tendencies (vasanā) while the subtle current (nāḍi-flow) runs clear along the Siddhar path.

4) “Thinking becomes debate; thought-drying becomes awakening” (நினைத்தால் வாதம் / நினை வற்றால் போதம்): The verse contrasts vāda (argumentation, contention) with bodha (awakening/knowing). It also preserves a Siddhar double-entendre: “வாதம்” is not only ‘debate’ but can echo vāta (wind-humor) in Siddha medicine—excess mental churn stirs ‘wind’ (restlessness), whereas the cessation/drying of thought yields clarity.

Overall, the teaching is not anti-intellect but anti-entanglement: reasoning that stays at the level of mental counting leads to endless disputation; the Siddhar way is to let attachment and proliferating thought dry up while the deeper current of awareness remains unobstructed.

Key Concepts

  • பற்று (attachment, clinging)
  • வரவு/கணக்கு (inflow, accounting; karmic/psychic ledger)
  • சித்தர் செய்கை (Siddhar’s embodied practice/doing)
  • விற்று / விளை (selling; yield/price/result—worldly and inner renunciation)
  • விண் (sky/heaven; also the subtle domain)
  • விறல் (prowess, strength; possibly siddhi-capacity)
  • வற்றிப் பாயும் (paradox: drying yet flowing—cessation of craving while prāṇa/awareness flows)
  • வழி (path; yogic route, nāḍi-way)
  • வாதம் (debate; also hinting vāta agitation)
  • போதம் (awakening/gnosis; also ‘clear knowing’)

Ambiguities or Multiple Readings

  • “பற்று வரவுக் கணக்கு” can mean karmic accounting, emotional attachment accumulation, or a critique of treating liberation as a calculable transaction.
  • “சித்தர் செய்கை” may denote moral action, yogic sādhana, alchemical operations, or all of these at once (Siddhar ‘doing’ as transformative praxis).
  • “விற்று முதலாம் விளை” can be read as ‘first profit after selling’ (commerce), ‘first fruit of renunciation’ (selling off the self/ego), or an alchemical ‘exchange’ (conversion of substances/energies).
  • “விண்ணுஞ் சித்தர் விறலுக்கே” may mean ‘even the sky is within the Siddhar’s power,’ or ‘even heaven is merely a minor reward compared to true realization,’ preserving deliberate understatement.
  • “வற்றிப் பாயும்” may refer to (a) mental cessation with continued awareness-flow, (b) prāṇa moving unobstructed when desires dry, or (c) inner-alchemical ‘drying’ processes while subtle currents run.
  • “வாதம்” can simultaneously signal argumentative disputation and a Siddha-medical hint of vāta disturbance caused by excessive mental activity.
  • “போதம்” can mean awakening/gnosis, but can also carry the shade of ‘intoxication/rapture’; the verse leaves open whether the ‘bodha’ is sober clarity or ecstatic absorption.