காந்தமென்னே? மின்னென்னே? கவர்ச்சி என்னே?
ககனத்தி லேமீன்கள் புரள்வ தென்னே?
ஏந்துமுயிர் வருவதென்னே? போவ தென்னே?
இறந்துபிறந் தெப்பொருளு மிலங்க லென்னே?
மாந்தருளம் பிறப்பதெங்கே? வாழ்வ தெங்கே?
மண்டுறங்க மறைவதெங்கே? மலர்வ தெங்கே?
சேர்ந்திணையும் காலமெங்கே? தேச மெங்கே?
சீறிவரும் கதிரடியும் முடியு மெங்கே?
Kaandhamenne? minnenne? kavarchchi enne?
Kakanaththi le meenngal puralva thenne?
Endhumuyir varuvadhenne? pova thenne?
Irandhupiran dhepporulu milanga lenne?
Maandharulam pirappadhenge? vaazhva thenge?
Manduranga maraivadhenge? malarva thenge?
Serndhinaiyum kaalamenge? desamenge?
Seerivarum kathiradiyum mudiyu menge?
What is “magnet” (kāntam)? What is “lightning/electricity” (miṉ)? What is “attraction” (kavarcci)?
What is it that the fishes roll about in the sky?
What is it that makes the upheld life (uyir) come? What is it that makes it go?
Why does every thing shine forth after dying and being born again?
Where does the human mind arise? Where does it live?
Where does it disappear (hide) in deep sleep? Where does it blossom?
Where is the time when things join and merge? Where is the “place/country” (dēcam)?
Where are the ‘roaring’ ray-feet and the crown/head?
What is the hidden force called “magnet,” the flash called “lightning,” and the pull called “attraction”?
What is the ‘fish’ that turns and writhes within the vast sky-like space?
By what does the life-breath arrive and by what does it depart?
How is it that beings repeatedly die and are born, yet the same display keeps reappearing as though it shines anew?
From where does mind arise in humans, and where does it abide?
Where does it vanish in thick sleep, and where does it open like a flower in awakening?
In what time (or stage) does the joining/union occur, and what is the true ‘place’ where it happens?
Where are the surging “rays”—their ‘feet’ below and their ‘head’ above—through which this power courses?
The verse is structured as a chain of riddling questions. On the surface it asks about physical phenomena—magnetism, electricity, attraction, celestial “fish,” the coming and going of life, and the locus of mind and sleep. In Siddhar idiom, such questions typically function as a single inquiry into the unseen causal principle that drives both nature and the yogic body.
1) Magnet/lightning/attraction: “kāntam” can denote a literal magnet (magnetite) used in rasavāda (alchemical) contexts, but also any binding force that draws and holds—desire, karmic pull, or the subtle “pull” by which prāṇa follows its channels. “miṉ” (lightning/flash) can indicate sudden energy—neural spark, prāṇic surge, or the flash of insight. “kavarcci” (attraction) can be erotic/desirous, gravitational, or the mind’s tendency to cling. Together they point to a single ‘drawing power’ operating across matter, breath, and mind.
2) “Fish in the sky”: “kakanam” (sky/ether) frequently doubles as inner space—citta-ākāśa (mind-space) or suṣumṇā-ākāśa (the central channel conceived as a vast interior). “Fish” may be read as stars/constellations moving in the night sky, clouds, or (in yogic cryptography) the restless motions of prāṇa and thought that swim in the ‘sky’ of consciousness. The “rolling” suggests unceasing oscillation—like breath, thought-waves, or ida–piṅgala alternation.
3) Coming and going of uyir: The “arrival” and “departure” of life points to breath and prāṇa, but also to the entry/exit of awareness through sense-gates and to the karmic momentum that brings embodiment and releases it. The Siddhar question is not merely “what causes breathing?” but “what principle makes embodiment possible at all?”
4) Dying and being born yet ‘shining’: The phrase about dying and being born again while things ‘shine forth’ hints at saṃsāra (recurrent manifestation) and at the paradox of continuity amid change. It can also gesture toward the non-dying luminous substrate (ātmic awareness) that appears through successive births, making the world ‘light up’ each time.
5) Where mind is born, lives, hides, and blooms: The mind’s “birth” may refer to the first stir of thought (vṛtti) from the ground of awareness; its “dwelling” to its habitual identification with body and world; its “hiding” to the dissolution of mental activity in deep sleep; its “blossoming” to awakening, clarity, or yogic opening (the ‘flowering’ of a cakra or the heart-lotus). The Siddhar uses ordinary states (waking, dream, deep sleep) as evidence for a deeper witness that is present even when mind is absent.
6) Time and place of union; ray-feet and crown: “joining/merging” suggests yoga—union of jīva with Śiva, prāṇa with the central channel, or the merging of opposites (sun/moon; ida/piṅgala) into suṣumṇā. “kālam” can be literal time, or the ripening stage when practice bears fruit. “dēcam” can be external geography, but in Siddhar usage often means the inner ‘region’ (deśa) in the body where realization occurs (heart-space, brow-center, crown, etc.).
The final image of “roaring rays” with ‘feet’ and ‘head’ is deliberately cryptic. It can be read cosmologically (sun’s rays with their ‘base’ at the horizon and their ‘crown’ overhead), or yogically (a rising current/fire/light—kuṇḍalinī or inner heat—ascending from the lower base (‘feet’) to the upper crown (‘head’)). The roar suggests forceful ascent, akin to prāṇic rush or inner nāda-like intensity. The verse, as a whole, presses the reader to locate all these phenomena—not in external objects alone—but in the subtle mechanics of consciousness, breath, and embodiment, culminating in the question: where, truly, do these forces originate and where do they resolve?