Golden Lay Verses

Verse 162 (யோக வைப்பு)

தமிழ் பாடல்

யாகமெலாம் யோகமெனக் கண்டார் தங்கள்

பாகமெலாம் த்யாகமெலாம் யோகம் யோகம்

Transliteration

yāgamellām yōgamenak kaṇḍār taṅgaḷ

pāgamellām tyāgamellām yōgam yōgam

Literal Translation

Those who realized (it) saw every yāga (ritual sacrifice) as yoga. Their entire “pāgam” (share/portion; or cooked/matured state) is tyāga (renunciation). (It is) yoga—yoga.

Interpretive Translation

The accomplished ones do not separate outer sacrifice from inner discipline: what others call “yāga” they recognize as yoga when it is internalized as an offering. What “falls to their lot”—their true gain, or their inner ripening—is tyāga: the relinquishing of possessiveness and ego. In that vision, all practice becomes yoga, wholly and repeatedly so.

Philosophical Explanation

This couplet compresses a common Siddhar move: shifting emphasis from Vedic/ritual performance (yāga) to direct yogic realization (yoga). The claim is not merely that rituals can be “like yoga,” but that the essence of sacrifice is yogic when the offering is internal—desire, sensory craving, and the sense of “I” are what must be placed into the inner fire (often implied as prāṇa-agni or kuṇḍalinī-agni).

The second line hinges on “pāgam,” which in ordinary Tamil can mean one’s portion/share, yet in Siddha contexts can also suggest “pākam”—cooking, maturation, or alchemical processing. Read as “share,” it says: the realized person’s only true ‘profit’ is renunciation. Read as “cooking/maturation,” it implies: the whole inner ‘processing’ or ripening of the practitioner culminates in tyāga—non-clinging—rather than in acquisitive siddhis. The doubled “yogam yogam” functions as an insistence: yoga is not one compartment of life; sacrifice, ripening, and letting-go are all the same current when rightly understood.

Key Concepts

  • yāga (sacrifice/ritual offering)
  • yoga (inner union/discipline)
  • tyāga (renunciation; relinquishment of possessiveness)
  • internalization of ritual
  • inner fire (agni) as yogic/alchemical symbol
  • ripening/processing (pākam/pāgam) and maturation of consciousness

Ambiguities or Multiple Readings

  • “பாகமெலாம் (pāgam elām)” can mean ‘their entire share/portion’ or allude to ‘pākam’—cooking/maturation/alchemical processing; both readings fit Siddhar idiom.
  • “யாகமெலாம் யோகமெனக் கண்டார் (those who saw all yāga as yoga)” may imply (a) yāga is reinterpreted as yoga, or (b) yāga is transcended because yoga is its true essence; the verse does not force a single stance.
  • “யோகம் யோகம்” may be simple emphasis, or it may suggest completeness/totality: yoga in every phase (practice and fruition), not merely a technique.