காலனிடம் தான்சென்றான் நாசி கேதன்
காலனவ னைக்கடந்தா னாஞ்ச னேயன்
காலமிலாக் காலத்தின் கருவைக் கண்டான்
கன்னியவள் சீதைமொழிக் கருணை கொண்டே
காலமடா தேசமடா கலந்து பொங்கும்
கர்மமடா வர்மமடா விஞ்ஞானிக்கே
காலமிலாக் காரணியாள் பூர ணத்தின்
கருவினிலே திதப்ரக்ஞன் சித்தன் சித்தன்
kālan iḍam tānceṉṟāṉ nāsi kētaṉ
kālaṉava ṉaikkaṭantā ṉāñca ṉēyaṉ
kālamilāk kālattiṉ karuvaik kaṇṭāṉ
kaṉṉiyavaḷ cītaimoḻik karuṇai koṇṭē
kālamaḍā tēcam aḍā kalantu poṅkum
karmamaḍā varmam aḍā viññāṉikkē
kālamilāk kāraṇiyāḷ pūra ṇattiṉ
karuviṉilē titaprakñaṉ cittan cittan
Nachiketa went of his own accord to Kālan (Death/Yama).
Anjaneyan (Hanumān) crossed beyond that Kālan.
He saw the “womb/seed” of time that has no time.
Taking to heart the compassion born of the maiden Sītā’s words,
“Is it time? Is it place?”—they mingle and surge together.
“It is karma indeed; it is varma indeed”—so (it is) to the knower (vijñāni).
By the timeless causal power (kāraṇi), within the womb/seed of the Full (pūrṇa),
the one of steady wisdom (sthita-prajña) is a Siddha—Siddha, Siddha.
The verse places two archetypal seekers side by side: Nachiketa, who confronts Death directly, and Hanumān, who is said to move beyond Death’s jurisdiction. In that “crossing,” the yogin discovers not merely the end of time but its concealed origin—the subtle causal “seed” from which time arises.
Through the compassionate utterance of Sītā (read also as Śakti/grace speaking through the ‘virgin’ purity of inner power), the yogin recognizes that time and space are not fixed externals: they blend and swell as experiential forces. For the true knower, these are read as karma (the momentum of acts/impressions) and varma (the hidden vital keys/marma-points by which life-force is protected, redirected, or unlocked). Established in the causal matrix of “pūrṇa” (wholeness/completion), the yogin becomes sthita-prajña—unshaken clarity—thus earning the name “Siddha.”
1) Confronting and surpassing Death: “Kālan” is both the deity Yama and the principle of time-as-death. Nachiketa signifies the Upaniṣadic movement of inquiry that does not avoid mortality; Hanumān signifies a state (or grace) in which prāṇa-consciousness is not overruled by the usual law of decay. The juxtaposition suggests that true knowledge first faces death, then transcends its claim.
2) “Seed/womb of time without time”: “கரு (karu)” can mean womb, embryo, seed, or secret interior. “Time without time” points to a causal level where sequence collapses—akin to a bindu-like source, or a samādhi in which time is experienced as an effect rather than a master. The Siddhar keeps it cryptic: it can be metaphysical (the Absolute ground) and also yogic (a precise inner state).
3) Sītā as compassion / Śakti as instruction: The reference to Sītā’s words can be read literally (Hanumān’s mission shaped by Sītā’s message) and symbolically (the ‘maiden’ as the undefiled inner power; her “speech” as mantra/inner directive). Compassion here functions as grace that reorients the seeker from heroic effort alone to a subtler, guided realization.
4) Time–space as karma–varma: The verse collapses categories. What appears as objective time and location becomes, to the vijñāni, a readable field of karmic momentum and varma (Tamil Siddha science of vital points/locks, also “secret/protective” knowledge). This hints at an embodied soteriology: liberation is not only a concept but also a reconfiguration of prāṇa through subtle bodily knowledge, where fate (karma) and physiology/energy anatomy (varma) interpenetrate.
5) Pūrṇa and sthita-prajña: “Pūrṇa” (fullness/wholeness) suggests completeness beyond lack—an Upaniṣadic flavor (“pūrṇam”). Abiding in its “seed” implies living at the causal root rather than the changing surface. “Sthita-prajña” (a Gītā-term) marks stabilized insight: the Siddha is defined not by visions but by unwavering clarity that is no longer compelled by time, fear, or karmic tides.