கோதுநீ கோதகலும் குணமுநீ குணமுடைய
குருவும் நீ கருவும் நீயே
பேதந் பேதமறு நீதநீ நீதமறு
பெண்மை நீ வண்மை நீயே
சூதநீ சூதமறு சூன்யநீ சூன்யமறும்
ஜோதி நீ ஆதி நீயே
Koathunee koathakalum gunamunee gunamudaiya
kuruvum nee karuvum neeyae
paethan paethamaru neethanee neethamaru
penmai nee vanmai neeyae
soothanee soothamaru soonyanee soonyamarum
joathi nee aathi neeyae
You are the flaw (kōtu); you are also the one without flaw / the remover of flaw.
You are the quality (guṇam); you are also the one endowed with quality.
You are the Guru; you are also the womb/embryo (karu).
You are difference (bhēdam); you are also the one in whom difference is absent.
You are righteousness / justice (nīti / nītam); you are also the one beyond righteousness.
You are womanhood; you are also manliness / strength (vaṇmai).
You are deceit / gambling-craft (sūtu); you are also the one without deceit.
You are the void (śūnyam); you are also the one beyond void.
You are the Light; you are the Primordial (Ādi).
You are the Absolute that appears as every opposing pair—fault and faultlessness, attribute and the attributed, teacher and the seed of embodiment. You are the very principle that makes distinctions, and yet you are the non-dual reality where distinctions dissolve. You are moral order and the one beyond all moral categories; you are the polarities of feminine and masculine; you are trickery and guilelessness; you are emptiness and what cannot be contained even by “emptiness.” As inner radiance you shine, and as the First you precede all beginnings.
This verse is structured as a deliberate chaining of contradictions (a Siddhar-idiom for indicating what cannot be captured by ordinary predicates). The speaker addresses an ultimate principle—often read as Śiva, the Self (Ātman), or the Supreme (Para)—that is simultaneously:
1) Immanent and transcendent: “Guru and embryo” joins the liberating guide (grace/knowledge) with the embodied germ (bindu/seed, the beginning of incarnation). In yogic-alchemical registers, “karu” can hint at the subtle seed (bindu) that condenses into body and is later refined; thus the same Reality is both the cause of embodiment and the revealer of liberation.
2) Beyond moral dualism: “You are nīti and beyond nīti” does not necessarily deny ethics; it points to a level where the Absolute is not classifiable as moral/immoral because it is the ground in which such categories arise. Siddhar texts often maintain practical discipline while denying that the ultimate can be reduced to moral descriptors.
3) Beyond ontological dualism: “difference and beyond difference” signals a non-dual metaphysics: multiplicity is experienced, yet the underlying consciousness is not split. This matches Siddhar and Śaiva non-dual gestures where the One manifests as many without losing unity.
4) Beyond conceptual extremes: “void and beyond void” is a classic apophatic move. Even ‘emptiness’ is treated as a concept; the Real is said to be so subtle that it cannot be finalized as either ‘something’ or ‘nothing.’
5) Integrating polar energies: “womanhood and manliness/strength” can be read psychologically (integrating polar traits) and yogically (Śakti–Śiva polarity; iḍā–piṅgalā currents). The verse affirms that the ultimate contains and surpasses gendered energies.
6) Light as self-revealing awareness: “You are Light” indicates consciousness that illuminates experience. “Ādi” (Primordial) anchors this Light as beginningless, prior to time and causation.
Overall, the verse uses paradox to preserve a core Siddhar insight: the highest is not a separate ‘pure’ opposite to impurity, nor merely an abstract emptiness, but the ground that can present as any form while remaining unbound by the forms and categories it manifests.