Golden Lay Verses

Verse 195 (நிர் நிலை வைப்பு)

தமிழ் பாடல்

நல்கு நீ நடவுலகு நடையுநீ நடலையறு

நலமு நீ பலமும் நீயே

அல்கு நீ அல்குல்தரு மலகுநீ யலகுகெடு

மமுத நீ குமுத நீயே

பல்கு நீ பலகலையின் பயனும்நீ பயனடையும்

பகுதி நீ விகுதி நீயே

புல்கு நீ புணரவரும் புலவுநீ புலவுதரும்

போக நீ யோக நீயே

நாதநீ நாதாந்த வேதநீ வேதாந்த

பாதம் நீ போதம் நீயே

Transliteration

nalgu nee nadavulagu nadaiyunee nadalaiyaru

nalamu nee balamu neeye

alku nee alkultharu malagunee yalagukedu

mamutha nee kumutha neeye

palgu nee palakalaiyin payanumnee payanadaiyum

pakuthi nee vikuthi neeye

pulgu nee punaravarum pulavunee pulavutharum

poga nee yoga neeye

naathanee naathaantha vethanee vethaantha

paatham nee potham neeye

Literal Translation

You are the giver; you are the gait (course) of the moving world; you are (its) stumbling/stammering and the remover of stumbling.

You are wellbeing; you are strength.

You are the woman/loins; you are the giver of the hips/waist.

You are filth/impurity; you are the one who destroys impurity.

You are nectar (amṛta); you are the kumuda-lotus.

You are that which abounds; you are the fruit of many arts, and you are the one who attains the fruit.

You are the part/portion; you are the modification/variation.

You are the one who clings/embraces; you are those who come to unite.

You are the learned one/poet; you are the one who grants learning/poetry.

You are enjoyment (bhoga); you are yoga.

You are nāda (sound); you are the end/limit of nāda.

You are Veda; you are Vedānta.

You are the feet/step/path; you are awakening/understanding (bodha).

Interpretive Translation

You alone appear as the world’s motion and order, and you alone remove its stumbling. You are health and the force that sustains it.

You are also the body’s generative power—sexuality, form, and beauty—yet you are equally the stain (mala) and the purifier who burns stain away. You are the hidden “nectar” that yogins taste, and the moon-lotus in which that nectar is gathered.

All arts and attainments are your play: you are both the “result” and the one who realizes it; both the measured part and the transforming variation.

Union and the longing to unite are you; the knower and the gift of knowledge are you; pleasure and discipline are you.

You are the inner sound-current and the silence beyond it; scripture and the end of scripture; the very feet (support, path, refuge) and the awakening they confer.

Philosophical Explanation

This is a characteristic Siddhar non-dual praise (often addressed to Śiva/Guru/Self as the single principle) that refuses to separate “pure” from “impure,” “means” from “end,” or “pleasure” from “yoga.” The refrain “நீ…நீயே” (“you…you indeed”) asserts identity: the Absolute is not merely a distant ruler but the substance, process, and realization of everything.

1) World-motion and remedy: “நடவுலகு நடை” points to the world’s moving order—its functioning, conduct, or course. “நடலை” (stumble/stammer/affliction) and “நடலையறு” (one who removes it) place the same reality as both symptom and cure, echoing Siddhar medicine/alchemy where poison can become medicine when transformed.

2) Body, sexuality, and impurity (mala): “அல்கு/அல்குல்” invokes the hips/loins and, by extension, sensuality and generative power. Siddhars often treat the body not as an obstacle but as the laboratory where transformation occurs. “மலகு/யலகு” suggests filth or “mala” (bonding impurity), with the paradox that the same principle manifests as bondage and as the fire that destroys bondage.

3) Amṛta and lotus symbolism: “மமுத” (amudam, amṛta) in Siddhar-yoga can refer to the subtle nectar associated with lunar energy and inner alchemical secretion, experienced in advanced practice (often linked to cranial centers). “குமுத” (kumuda-lotus/water-lily; also moon-associated) supports a yogic reading: the moon-lotus gathers/reflects the nectar-like essence.

4) Arts, fruits, and attainment: “பலகலை” (many arts) includes worldly skills and yogic ‘arts’ (siddhis/techniques). The verse collapses the distinction between fruit (phala) and enjoyer/attainer: the Absolute is both what is gained and the consciousness that gains.

5) Bhoga and yoga: By declaring “போக நீ யோக நீயே,” the text denies an absolute opposition between enjoyment and discipline. In Siddhar discourse this can imply either (a) a tantric inclusivity where desire is transmuted, or (b) an Advaitic claim that both are appearances within one reality.

6) Nāda → nādānta; Veda → Vedānta: “நாத” (nāda) is the inner sound-current heard in contemplation; “நாதாந்த” points to its culmination—sound dissolving into silence (a metaphor for mind dissolving into awareness). “Veda” can signify ritual/authoritative revelation; “Vedānta,” its ‘end,’ signifies the consummation in direct knowledge. Thus the verse maps an inner ascent: from sound to silence, from text to realization.

7) Feet/path and awakening: “பாதம்” is both ‘feet’ (guru’s feet as refuge) and ‘path/step.’ “போதம்” is awakening/gnosis/teaching. The claim is that the same ultimate principle is both the support (feet/path) and the illuminating knowledge (bodha).

Key Concepts

  • Non-dual identity (You are everything)
  • Śiva/Guru/Self as immanent and transcendent
  • Mala (impurity) and purification
  • Body-as-laboratory (Siddhar medicine/alchemy)
  • Amṛta (nectar) and lunar/lotus symbolism
  • Bhoga and Yoga (enjoyment and discipline)
  • Nāda and nādānta (inner sound and its cessation)
  • Veda and Vedānta (scripture and realized end)
  • Phala (fruit/result) and the attainer
  • Pādam/Bodham (path/feet and awakening)

Ambiguities or Multiple Readings

  • “நடவுலகு நடை” can mean (a) the gait/course of the moving world, (b) the world’s conduct/ethical order, or (c) the orderly functioning of embodied life (physiology).
  • “நடலை” may be read as stammering/stuttering, stumbling/lameness, or a broader ‘affliction/defect’; “நடலையறு” then becomes remover of that defect (physician-like or liberator-like).
  • “அல்கு / அல்குல்” can signify female loins/hips/waist (erotic/generative symbolism) but may also be taken more abstractly as bodily form/beauty or the seat of desire-energy.
  • “மலகு” can be plain ‘filth/excrement’ (literal impurity) or ‘mala’ in the metaphysical sense (bondage/defilement of consciousness).
  • “யலகு கெடு” is lexically uncertain in modern usage; it may mean destroying dirt/defect, destroying error, or removing ‘defilement’ broadly (physical, moral, or karmic).
  • “குமுத” may be (a) the kumuda water-lily associated with moonlight, (b) a symbolic ‘lotus-center’ in yogic anatomy, or (c) an emblem of coolness/soothing lunar virtue.
  • “பகுதி / விகுதி” can be read as part vs variation/modification, or as a philosophical pairing akin to ‘natural constitution’ vs ‘altered state’ (prakṛti/vikṛti), preserving Siddhar wordplay on measure and transformation.
  • “புலவு” can mean (a) learning/poetic scholarship (pulavar), or (b) foul smell/impurity; the line can therefore praise the divine as both ‘knower and giver of knowledge’ or again ‘impurity and its source/transformation.’
  • “புணரவரும்” can denote literal sexual union (tantric/erotic reading) or spiritual union (jīva seeking to unite with Śiva), intentionally leaving the register ambiguous.
  • “நாதாந்த” can mean the terminal point where inner sound ceases into silence (yogic reading) or ‘the ultimate beyond nāda’ as a name of the transcendent absolute (theological reading).