உய்யுருகும் களியிலுடற் பையுருகும் வெளியினிலே
ஐய்யுருகும் அளியினிலே மெய்யுருக நைந்தேனே
uyyurugum kaḷiyiluḍaṟ paiyurugum veḷiyinilē
aiyyurugum aḷiyinilē meyyuruga naintēnē
In the “kaḷi” where (one) melts to be saved/liberated,
In the “veḷi” (open space/void) where the body’s “pai” (bag/sheath) melts,
In the “aḷi” (grace/mercy) where “aiyam” (doubt) melts,
I languished—until the “mey” (the true/real) melted (within me).
In an ecstatic inner absorption (kaḷi) where the impulse of separate living loosens into release,
within the vast “space/void” (veḷi) where the body’s enclosing sheath is felt to dissolve,
and in the field of compassion/grace (aḷi) where doubt itself is liquefied—
I was worn away: the sense of “true self/true reality” melted, leaving only that undivided state.
This verse is built on a repeated Siddhar motif: “urukuthal” (melting/dissolving). The “melting” is not merely emotional; it can denote yogic dissolution of layers of identity.
1) “kaḷi” (joy/intoxication/ecstasy): In Siddhar diction, kaḷi can point to the rapture of inward absorption (samādhi-like bliss) where the seeker’s clinging to ordinary life and egoic persistence softens. “uyy-urugum” can be heard as “melting into uyyvu (deliverance)”—liberation as a process of liquefaction rather than attainment by force.
2) “veḷi” (space/void/open expanse): “Veḷi” often functions as a technical word for inner expanse (ākāśa/para-veḷi), the spaciousness revealed when mind and sense-bound cognition relax. “uḍar-pai” (body-bag/body-sheath) suggests the body as a container or covering (comparable to a “sheath” language: a kosha-like enclosure). To say it “melts” hints at a yogic shift where bodily fixation, rigidity, and the sense of being bounded by flesh loosen—either as a contemplative experience (de-identification from the body) or as Siddha “kāya-sādhana” imagery of transforming the bodily condition.
3) “aḷi” (grace/mercy / nectar-like compassion): In devotional and Siddha registers, aḷi points to the tender force of divine compassion (often aligned with aruḷ). In that atmosphere, “aiyam” (doubt) melts: not through argument, but through experiential certainty born of direct tasting.
4) “mey-uruguthal” and “nainthēnē” (I wasted/pined): “mey” is “truth/reality/the real,” and also “the true body/true state.” The speaker claims to have been “worn down” until even the ‘true’ sense (or the sense of having grasped truth) melts—suggesting a final thinning of subtle ego: not only gross identity but even the refined identity of “I have realized” dissolves. The tone is both devotional (heart-melting) and yogic/alchemical (dissolution of coverings), intentionally leaving open whether the primary emphasis is bhakti’s tender liquefaction or a technical account of inner transformation.