நடப்பதது கொடுப்பதது தடுப்பதஃதே
படுப்பதது பிடிப்பதது விடுப்பதஃதே
அடுப்பதது அணைப்பதது தொடுப்பதஃதே
நடுப்பொதுவில் நடிப்பததன் நினைப்புயோகம்
naṭappatatu koṭuppatatu taṭuppatahte
paṭuppatatu piṭippatatu viṭuppatahte
aṭuppatatu aṇaippatatu toṭuppatahte
naṭuppotuvil naṭippatatan ninaippuyōkam.
To walk/move is to give; it is also to restrain.
To lie down is to hold; it is also to let go.
To set on the fire/cook is to extinguish (or: to embrace); it is also to join/link.
In the common middle (the center), the acting/playing is the yoga of contemplation (thought).
The Siddhar points to a yogic method hidden inside ordinary verbs: every outward act contains its opposite. Real practice is to recognize and master the paired movements—giving and withholding, grasping and releasing, heating and cooling/embracing, separating and joining—until one abides in the “middle.” Remaining centered in that middle (often read as the central channel or the inner equanimous seat) while these opposites “perform their play” is the discipline of attention: yoga by sustained remembrance/awareness.
This verse is built as a sequence of paradoxical pairings. Siddhar language often compresses instruction into everyday actions, so “walking,” “lying,” and “cooking” can be read simultaneously as (1) ordinary life-activities and (2) inner yogic/alchemical operations.
1) Ethical/psychological reading (life-practice): - “Walking is giving; walking is restraining”: Movement in the world involves both generosity (spending energy, offering, engaging) and restraint (limits, discipline, not crossing boundaries). - “Lying down is holding; lying down is letting go”: Rest can be clinging (sleep as dullness, inertia) or release (relaxation, surrender). - “Cooking is extinguishing/embracing; cooking is joining”: Transformation requires heat (effort, tapas) but also the capacity to quench excess, soften, and combine what was separate. The ‘yoga’ is not choosing one pole but seeing both and staying steady in the center.
2) Yogic-physiological reading (prāṇa and bandha): - “Walking/moving” can hint at prāṇa’s circulation; “giving” and “restraining” echo exhalation/expansion versus retention (kumbhaka) and control of the senses. - “Holding” and “releasing” can refer to muscular locks (bandha), the capture of attention, and the deliberate letting-go that prevents fixation. - “Cooking” is a common Siddhar/Tantric metaphor for generating inner heat (tapas, kuṇḍalinī agitation, ‘digesting’ impurities). “Extinguishing” can indicate cooling the heat with inner nectar (amṛta) or pacifying excess; “joining” can indicate the merging of dual currents (iḍā–piṅgalā) into the central axis.
3) Alchemical reading (rasavāda/inner laboratory): - Siddhar alchemy speaks in the language of furnace-work: apply heat, quench, bind/combine. “Aḍuppu” (stove/furnace) suggests regulated firing; “aṇaittal” can mean quenching a flame (cooling) or embracing (bringing close), both relevant to controlled transformation.
The final line—“in the common middle, the play is thought-yoga”—summarizes the method: the decisive locus is the ‘middle’ (a neutral center, or the suṣumṇā-like median), and the decisive instrument is “ninaippu” (thought/attention/remembering). What appears as ‘acting’ is the ongoing play of opposites; yoga is to witness, regulate, and integrate that play without losing the center.