விஞ்ஞான வீதியெல்லாம் வேகம் வேகம்
வேகமினல் தாமத்தின் வித்தை வித்தை
அஞ்ஞான வீதியெல்லாம் போகம் போகம்
அடடாடா கயிறறுந்த பொம்ம லாட்டம்
செய்ஞ்ஞானக் கதியெல்லா மாண வத்தின்
செயலன்றி வேறில்லை சென்மம் சென்மம்
மெய்ஞ்ஞான விளைவெல்லாம் யோகம் யோகம்
மின்னான சக்தியுடன் சாகம் சோகம்
viññāna vīṭiyellām vēkam vēkam
vēkaminal tāmatthin vitthai vitthai
aññāna vīṭiyellām pōkam pōkam
aḍaḍāḍā kayiṟarunta pomma lāttam
ceyññānak katiyellā māṇa vattin
ceyalaṉṟi vērillai ceṉmam ceṉmam
meyññāna viḷaivellām yōkam yōkam
miṉṉāna caktiyudan cākam cōkam`
“In all the streets (paths) of vijnāna (scientific/analytic knowing), [it is] speed, speed.
If there is no speed, [then it is] the ‘art/stratagem’ of slowness (tāma).
In all the streets of ajñāna (unknowing), [it is] pleasure-enjoyment, pleasure-enjoyment.
Alas! like a puppet-dance whose rope has been cut.
In all the courses/destinations of seijñāna (right/refined knowing), there is nothing other than the activity of ‘māṇavam/āṇavam’ (human-ego principle)—birth, birth.
In all the results of meijñāna (true knowing), [it is] yoga, yoga.
With lightning-like śakti (power), [there is] death, sorrow.”
“The route of external ‘science’ runs on acceleration and momentum; when that momentum collapses, one falls into the know-how of inertia (tāmas)—a clever stagnation.
The route of ignorance is pleasure-seeking; it becomes a frantic, ungoverned puppet-show once the controlling ‘string’ is lost.
The route of right knowledge is not a mere idea: it is the working-out (through repeated births) of the ego/human-conditioning that keeps acting.
The harvest of true knowledge is yoga—inner yoking and integration.
But when lightning-like power (kuṇḍalinī/śakti) is involved, mishandling can turn it into death and grief.”
The verse arranges four ‘roads’ or modes of knowing—vijñāna, ajñāna, seijñāna, meijñāna—as progressively deeper orientations of consciousness.
1) Vijñāna as “speed”: This can point to outward, technical, or analytic knowledge that thrives on velocity—information, experimentation, achievement, and measurable progress. “Speed” here is also a metaphor for rajasic propulsion: the mind rushing outward through senses and concepts.
2) “If no speed, the art of tāma”: When the rajasic drive is absent, one might not necessarily attain peace; one may instead sink into tāmas (inertia, dullness, procrastination). Calling it a “vittai” (craft/trick) suggests a subtle warning: inertia can masquerade as calm, and stagnation can be mistaken for spiritual stillness.
3) Ajñāna as “bhoga” (enjoyment): The ignorant path is repetitive indulgence. The image “a puppet-dance with the rope cut” is deliberately paradoxical: a puppet normally moves by strings; when cut, it should collapse—yet the verse says it becomes a chaotic ‘dance.’ This evokes a life driven by impulses and karmic momentum after losing inner governance (discernment, discipline, or the guru’s ‘string’).
4) Seijñāna and the problem of the ego across births: “Sei-” (that which is proper/true/wholesome) implies a corrective knowledge that must be enacted. The line says its course contains “nothing other than” the continuing activity of the ‘māṇavam/āṇavam’ principle—readable as the human condition or the egoic impurity (āṇava-mala in Śaiva vocabulary). The insistence “birth, birth” frames practice as karmic unraveling over lifetimes, not merely intellectual understanding.
5) Meijñāna culminating in yoga: True knowing is not only a doctrine; its “fruit” is yoga—union/integration, mastery of mind-breath-body, and stabilizing realization.
6) Lightning-like śakti and danger: “Minn-āna śakti” points to sudden, electric inner force—often resonant with kuṇḍalinī experiences, prāṇic surges, or siddhi-energies. Pairing it with “death, sorrow” reads as a caution: power without maturity, grounding, or ethical purification can damage body-mind (medical/yogic hazard), inflate ego (spiritual hazard), or precipitate crisis (karmic hazard). The verse thus does not romanticize energy; it insists on readiness and right handling.