நாயடக்கி யேபுவன நாட்டம் பாரு
நயனத்தை யேமூடிக் கவனம் பாரு
வாயடக்கி யேயேன்னம் புசித்துப் பாரு
வழிமடக்கி வாசியதை வசித்துப் பாரு
மாயடக்கி மதியமதைக் குடித்துப் பாரு
மனைகட்டி யேதெருவில் படுத்துப் பாரு
நோயடக்கி நொடிநுணுக்க நாற்றம் தேடு
நுரையடக்கித் தயிர்கடையப் பாலாம் தேரு
naayaḍakki yēbuvana nāṭṭam pāru
nayanattai yēmūḍik kavanam pāru
vaayaḍakki yēyēnnam puchittup pāru
vaḻimaḍakki vāsiyatai vachittup pāru
maayaḍakki matiyamataik kuḍittup pāru
manaikaṭṭi yēteruvil paḍuttup pāru
nōyaḍakki noḍinuṇukka nāṟṟam tēḍu
nuraiyaḍakkit tayirkaḍaiyap pālām tēru
Restrain the dog and look at the world’s dance.
Close the eyes and look at attention.
Restrain the mouth and try “eating” thought.
Turn back the path and try dwelling in (mastery/vasiyam).
Restrain illusion and try drinking that which is the moon-like (cool) intellect.
Build a house and try lying down in the street.
Restrain disease; seek the subtle fragrance, moment by moment.
Restrain the froth; to churn curd, choose milk (as the proper base).
Tame the “dog” of instinct and restlessness, and you will perceive the play of the worlds more clearly.
Withdraw the senses (close the eyes) and test what true attention is.
Discipline speech and appetite; take in (digest) thought itself rather than objects.
Reverse the outward-flowing current—turn the course back within—and abide in vasi-yoga (the art of governing the vital winds and mind).
Overcome māyā and drink the moon-nectar: the cool, clarifying essence that descends when inner practice ripens.
Though you may have a “house” (body, status, possessions), lie as if on the street—unclaimed, unattached, without private territory.
When illness is subdued, search for the finest sign of inner transformation: a fragrance discerned in tiny instants.
Stop the foaming agitation; then churn rightly—when the base is pure and steady, the essence can be obtained.
The verse is a chain of imperatives built on the Siddhar theme of “அடக்கி” (adakki: restrain/subdue). Each restraint points to a yogic or alchemical reversal: from outward living to inward extraction of essence.
1) “Dog” (நாய்) commonly signals the untrained mind, craving, or instinctual drive that roams and bites. By “taming the dog,” one becomes fit to witness “the world’s dance” (புவன நாட்டம்)—not merely worldly spectacle, but the ceaseless movement of the elements and mental modifications.
2) Closing the eyes is not simply physical; it gestures toward pratyāhāra (sense-withdrawal). “Look at attention” turns the gaze from objects to the faculty of knowing itself—an instruction toward sustained observation (கவனம்) rather than sensory consumption.
3) Restraining the mouth (speech/food) is a classic ascetic restraint, but “eating thought” is deliberately paradoxical: the practitioner is asked to ingest the mind’s own content—i.e., to turn cognition into the object of contemplation until thought is “digested” and its reactive force diminishes.
4) “Turn back the path” (வழிமடக்கி) hints at reversing the outward drift of prāṇa and consciousness. The phrase “வாசியதை வசித்துப்” invokes vāsi/vasiyam: mastery, often linked with vasi-yoga and the governance of vāyu (vital air). This can include breath retention, internal locks, and channel-work, but the Siddhar phrasing keeps it cryptic.
5) “Drink the moon/intellect” (மதியமதைக் குடி) suggests soma/amṛta imagery: a cooling nectar associated with the ‘moon’ principle and higher centers. Philosophically it can mean absorbing the luminous, cooling clarity of refined awareness once māyā’s distortions are subdued.
6) “Build a house and lie in the street” is a deliberate shock: possess the capacity to build (body, practice, social life), yet remain as one without claim—free from proprietorship and identity. It also resonates with Siddhar reversals: create structure but do not cling to it.
7) “Seek the subtle fragrance, moment by moment” connects to Siddhar/Tantric phenomenology where inner transformation yields signs (sound, light, smell). “Fragrance” may indicate purified nāḍi-flow, a sattvic body-mind, or the faint sign of an inner ‘medicine’ becoming active; the mention of “nodi-nunukka” (instants and minuteness) insists on ultra-fine attentiveness.
8) “Restrain the froth; churn curd; choose milk” uses dairy-alchemy as a metaphor for inner extraction: agitation produces foam; disciplined churning yields butter/essence only when the base is suitable. In yogic terms: calm the surface agitation (froth) and work the practice correctly so that a subtle essence (nectar/clarity/realization) is obtained. The line may also hint at medicinal dietetics—what is fit as a base-substance for transformation.
Overall, the verse teaches that liberation/attainment is not gained by adding experiences but by a sequence of restraints and reversals that refine perception, prāṇa, and identity until an “essence” is directly tasted.