முடிநனைய வேயமுதப் பொய்கை யாட
முச்சகத்தான் கதிரவனு மச்சங் கொள்வான்
கடிநழுவக் காலந்தான் கதுவுங் காலம்
காலனுமே நிலைமாறிக் கவலை கொள்வான்
மடியகற்றி மதனப்பூ மார்க்கம் நீங்க
மாரனவன் கதிகலங்கி மாண்டு போவான்
குடியிருப்பான் முடிதரிப்பான் குவல யத்தைக்
கோத்திருப்பான் பார்த்திருப்பான் கர்ம யோகி
muṭinaṉaiya vēyamuta-p poykai yāṭa
muccakattāṉ katiravaṉu maccaṅ koḷvāṉ
kaṭinaḻuvak kālantāṉ katuvuṅ kālam
kālaṉumē nilaimāṟik kavalai koḷvāṉ
maṭiyakaṟṟi matanappū mārkkam nīṅka
māraṉavaṉ katikalaṅki māṇṭu pōvāṉ
kuṭiyiruppāṉ muṭitarippāṉ kuvala yattai-k
kōttiruppāṉ pārttiruppāṉ karma yōki
Bathe in the nectar-pond so that the hair/topknot becomes wet.
Even the Sun of the three worlds will take on a “macham” (mark / fish-form / fish-sign).
When the fierce/unyielding slips away, Time itself enters its cutting/turning phase.
Even Kālan (Death/Yama) changes his stance and becomes troubled.
Cast off dullness/infatuation and leave the pathway of Madana’s flower (the way of erotic desire).
Māran (Cupid) will have his course confused and will perish.
He will abide; he will bear the topknot;
He will protect the world and keep watch—he is a karma-yogi.
When the yogin bathes the “crown” (mudi) in inner nectar (amṛta), the solar force that rules the three worlds is cooled, altered, and made to submit. As that inner cooling and reversal occurs, the tyranny of time loosens: the very principle of time shifts, and even Death becomes anxious. With delusion shed and the “flower-path” of lust abandoned, the power of desire (Māran) loses its direction and dies away. Such a one remains established in the world—yet unattached—wearing the sign of yogic sovereignty, guarding and watching over life as a karma-yogi.
1) “Nectar-pond” and “wetting the topknot”: In Siddhar idiom, amṛta is not merely a mythic drink but an inner secretion/essence linked with the head region (crown, cranial vault, or the “moon” center). “Wetting the mudi” hints that the experience is not intellectual but saturating—an embodied flooding of the head with cooling essence. This can be read as (a) the descent of amṛta from the cranial center, (b) the reversal of the usual downward leakage of vital essence (bindu), or (c) the filling of an inner “pool” associated with khecarī-like or nāḍi-alchemical practices.
2) “The sun takes a macham”: The “sun” often signifies heat, metabolism, pingalā current, outward-driving vitality, or worldly dominance (“three worlds”). To say the sun itself ‘takes macham’ suggests that the solar principle is altered—cooled, submerged, marked, eclipsed, or made to move differently—under the influence of the inner nectar. This encodes a physiological-alchemical reversal: heat is tempered by the lunar/amṛta principle, and the usual outward pull of sensory life is restrained.
3) Time and Death disturbed: “Kālam” (time) and “Kālan” (Death/Yama) are paired abstractions. The verse claims that with the nectar-bath and the subduing of the solar/fiery drive, the practitioner’s relation to time changes: (a) longevity/decay is transformed in the body (medical reading), (b) compulsive temporality loosens in consciousness (yogic reading), and (c) karmic inevitability is interrupted (soteriological reading). ‘Death becoming anxious’ is a bold siddhar trope for crossing the threshold where death no longer has the same jurisdiction.
4) Abandoning Madana’s flower-path: “Madana/Māran” is erotic desire that blooms and ensnares. The ‘flower-path’ is the attractive route of pleasure, reproduction, and sense-expansion. In siddha-yoga, conquering lust is not moralism alone but vital for conserving/transmuting essence; desire is treated as a force that disperses bindu and strengthens time/death through bodily depletion.
5) Karma-yogi who protects the world: The final lines pivot from private attainment to public stance. The liberated one does not necessarily flee society; he ‘dwells’ and ‘watches,’ acting without bondage. “Wearing the mudi” can indicate a literal ascetic matted lock/topknot, but also the ‘crown’ of mastery—inner rulership. Thus the siddhar ideal here is not only liberation from lust and death, but steady, protective action in the world.