காருள்ளே கதிராய்ப் பொங்கும் கண்மணி வண்ணன் தன்னை
காற்றிலே காற்றாய் ஜீவக் கதி யென்னும் ரதத்தை ஓட்டிப்
ஏருள்ளே எந்த னுள்ளே என்னகச் சொந்த னாக
எம்பிரா னிருப்பான் காப்பான் இல்லையேற் காத்தி டானோ
kār uḷḷē kathirāyp poṅgum kaṇmaṇi vaṇṇan tannai
kāṟṟilē kāṟṟāy jīvakk gathi yennum rathaththai ōṭṭip
ēr uḷḷē enthaṉ uḷḷē ennagach chonthaṉ āga
empirā ṉiruppān kāppān illaiyēṟ kāththi ṭānō
Within the cloud/darkness, swelling up as a ray of light—the jewel(-like), Vannan (the “colored/dark-hued” One) himself;
In the air, as air, driving the chariot called the “course/movement of the jīva (life)” (jīva-gati);
Within the ēṟ (plough/field/yoke) and within me, as what is inwardly one’s own;
My Lord will abide and protect—if there is no one (else), will He not protect (me)?
In the very obscurity that covers awareness, the indwelling Lord rises as a sudden inner radiance. As the subtlest breath within breath, He “drives” the life-process itself, steering the jīva’s movement. He is not outside, but intimate—within the cultivated ‘field’ of the body and within my own interior as the nearest kin. Since there is no other true refuge, surely the One who resides within will guard me.
The verse blends bhakti language with yogic physiology. “Within the cloud/darkness, as a ray” can indicate the divine appearing as jñāna/light inside the mind’s obscuration (mala/ajñāna), or inside the body’s gross opacity. “In air, as air” points to immanence: the Lord is not merely a distant deity but the very vayu that moves as prāṇa; the life-breath is treated as His mode. The “chariot called jīva-gati” is a classical metaphor: embodied life is a vehicle in motion, and the divine functions as charioteer (suggesting mastery over prāṇa and karmic momentum). The line “within ēṟ” is deliberately concrete: ēṟ commonly evokes plough/field/yoke—so the body (or practice-field) is something to be cultivated, yoked, and guided; the same image can also touch alchemical symbolism (radiance emerging from ‘blackness’). Finally, the rhetorical question—“if there is none else, will He not protect?”—expresses surrender: since the indweller is already the power moving breath and life, protection is not external rescue but the sustaining presence of the Antaryāmi (inner ruler).