வேதமதி யொளிசுருதி விகுதியது பாதி
பாதிமதி பதமூலி பணிகதியின் சேதி
தாதியவள் தாளில்விழத் தருவள்மிகு மீதி
கோதிவிலை கூறிவிடு கூத்தியவள் ஜாதி
Vēthamathi yoḷisuruthi vikuthiyathu pāthi
Pāthimathi pathamūli paṇikathiyin sēthi
Thāthiyavaḷ thāḷilvizha tharuvaḷmigu mīthi
Kōthivilai kūṟiviṭu kūththiyavaḷ jāthi
“The Vedic-minded (or Veda-knowledge) — the luminous śruti — its portion is only half.
The half-moon: the root of the ‘pada’ (step/word); the tidings of the path of service (or the path of ‘pani’).
If one falls at the feet of that ‘nourishing woman’ (wet-nurse/mother), she gives an abundant remainder.
State the price of the monkey; state the caste of the dancing woman.”
Scriptural brilliance and learned ‘śruti’ grasp only a partial share of truth.
The “half-moon” points to an incomplete mind/illumination, while the real clue is at the root—at the mūla of practice (the base/source), where the path is disclosed.
When one surrenders at the feet of the Mother/Śakti (the one who “nourishes”), what was missing is bestowed in fullness.
Trying to fix the “price” of the monkey-mind, or the “caste” of the divine dancer, is a futile obsession with measure and category—what matters is direct realization, not classification.
The verse works by juxtaposing (1) “śruti/veda” as external authority and (2) “mūla” as the hidden root of realization. Calling the Vedic light “half” suggests that book-knowledge, even when radiant, remains incomplete without the embodied, inner route.
The “half-moon” can be read as a yogic image of partial awakening (a crescent rather than a full moon), or as an emblem of a divided cognition. The phrase “padamūli” (“root of the step/word”) hints at the foundational seat where practice begins: it can point to the root-center (mūla), to the root of mantra/word (mūla-śabda), or to the very base of one’s discipline. “Pani-gati” then names a ‘way’ or ‘movement’ tied either to service/discipline (pani) or to a ‘cool/nectar-like’ current (pani as coolness), both of which fit Siddhar yogic idiom.
The “nourishing woman” functions as a deliberately earthy yet sacred symbol: she may be the Mother as Śakti/Kundalinī, the guru-principle, or the inner power that “feeds” the seeker with what is beyond textual halves—i.e., the ‘remainder’ (mīthi) that completes knowledge.
The last line attacks the urge to objectify spiritual realities. A “monkey” evokes the restless, jumping mind; giving it a ‘price’ reduces it to a commodity (attempting to control it through calculation). A “dancer woman” evokes the dancing Śakti (or the divine play of phenomena); assigning her a ‘caste’ mirrors social and conceptual sorting. The Siddhar’s point is not social commentary alone, but a deeper critique: liberation is blocked by measurement, status-thinking, and conceptual policing of what is essentially beyond categories.