சாபங்கள் தான்தீரக் கள்ளிப் பாலைத்
தான்சுரக்கத் தான்கறந்து தழலைமூட்டி
ஓமங்கள் தான்முடிய உள்வாய் மூடி
உத்தமனே கல்லுப்பைக் கலுவ மிட்டு
தாபங்க ளவையோடக் கல்லா லின்கீழ்
தழைவான மல்லுப்பு மலமுங் கூட்டிக்
கோபங்கள் கொள்ளாமல் வேதை செய்யக்
குறையறியாந் தெள்ளுப்பூச் சோதி யாமே
saabangaL thaanthIrak kaLLip paalaith
thaansurakkath thaankaranthu thazhalaimUtti
OmaNgaL thaanmuDiya uLvAi mUdi
uththamanE kalluppaik kaluva mittu
thaabangaL avaiyOdak kallaa linkIzh
thazhaivaana malluppu malamuங kUttik
kOpaNgaL koLLaamal vEthai seyyak
kuRaiyaRiyaanh theLLuppUch sOthi yaamE.
So that curses may of themselves be undone, make the cactus’ milk (latex) flow; draw (milk) it yourself and kindle the fire.
So that the homa-rites may be completed, close the “inner mouth.”
O noble one, put rock-salt into the kaluvam (a mortar / a vessel / a crucible).
So that the heats/fevers may run off, beneath/under the “kallāl,” gather the leafy malluppu together with the mala (impurity/waste).
Without taking up angers, do the vētai (Veda/rite or treatment); then it becomes the sesame-flower light—an un-failing radiance.
To dissolve what afflicts you like a curse, take what is harsh and caustic (cactus latex) and, by measured heat, convert it into a workable medicine/operation. Complete the outer rite only by performing the inner discipline: seal the ‘inner mouth’—restrain speech, breath, and taste-desire, or seal the vessel’s inner opening. Add the sharp purifier (salt) into the working bowl/crucible; grind and combine the leafy agent called malluppu with ‘mala’ (the body’s wastes or the dross/impurity to be removed), whether literally as ingredients or symbolically as the defilements to be cooked out. If this is done without anger (the heating of the mind), the work becomes true vētai—right ritual/right remedy—and yields a steady, clear inner light, likened to a lamp fed by sesame (or to a sesame-flower-like radiance) that does not diminish.
This verse braids three Siddhar registers—medicine, alchemy, and yoga—so that none of them stands alone.
1) External pharmaco-alchemy: Cactus latex is a potent, even irritant substance; the instruction to “make it ooze, milk it, and kindle fire” reads as controlled extraction and heating (purification/cooking). Rock-salt is a classic purifier and catalyst in South Asian pharmacopeia and rasavāda; placing it in a kaluvam suggests pounding/grinding or charging a vessel before further processing.
2) Inner rite over outer rite: “Finish the homa by closing the inner mouth” shifts the sacrifice from fire-altar to body-altar. ‘Inner mouth’ can point to yogic sealing (restraint of speech and sense-craving; tongue/palate lock) and/or the sealing of an alchemical mouth (a furnace or crucible aperture). In Siddhar idiom, the rite is ‘completed’ only when the practitioner’s inner leaks are stopped.
3) Illness as heat and karma: “Curses” and “heats/fevers” can be literal afflictions (fever, burning disorders) and also karmic or psychological burdens. ‘Mala’ functions both as physical waste and as the subtle impurity (āṇava/karma/māyā-type defilement). The verse hints that what must be ‘combined and cooked’ is not only an herb-mixture but also one’s own impurity under discipline.
4) Ethical-psychic condition of success: “Do not take up anger” is not mere morality; it is a technical condition. Anger is itself a ‘heat’ that deranges both medicine and mind; the correct ‘cooking’ requires steadiness. The promised result—“sesame(-flower) light”—evokes either a literal sesame-oil lamp (clear, steady flame) or the inner jyoti that arises when the practitioner’s heat is refined rather than scattered.