சத்தான சிவமயமே சித்தாம் விஷ்ணு
சித்தான விஷ்ணுமயம் சத்தாமீசன்
முத்தான ரேபமிட்டுச் சிவன்மால்மாறி
முன்பின்னா யிடவலமாய் வாலிற் சேர்த்து
கொத்தான வாமியபி ராமியன்னைக்
கூத்தான வெழுத்தெல்லாம் கோணங் கோணம்
வைத்தேதான் வாலைதனைப் பூசைசெய்தால்
வாழ்வெல்லாம் தாழ்வில்லா வளமாம் பாரே
saththāna sivamayamē siththām viṣṇu
siththāna viṣṇumayam saththāmīsan
muththāna rēbamittu sivanmāl māṟi
munpinnā yiṭavalamāy vāliṟ sērththu
koththāna vāmiyapi rāmiyannaik
kūththāna veḻuththellām kōṇam kōṇam
vaiththēthān vālaithanaip pūsaiseithāl
vāḻvellām thāḻvillā vaḷamām pārē
“The sounded/manifest (sattam) is Siva-pervaded; the mind (cittam) is Vishnu.
The mind is Vishnu-pervaded; the sound is the Lord (Iśan).
Placing the pearl-like ‘rēpam’ (the ‘ra’ letter/mark), Siva and Māl (Vishnu) are interchanged.
Joining (letters/things) as before/after, left/right, and attaching them at the ‘tail’ (the end),
(the) clustered Vāmi–Abhirāmi Mother—
all the dancing letters—(set them) angle by angle (in corners/triangles).
Having thus placed (them), if one performs worship of that ‘vālai/vaal’,
then all of life becomes a prosperity with no lowering/decline—behold.”
Sound and mind are presented as two faces of divinity—Śiva and Viṣṇu—capable of reversing into one another when the mantra-body is altered. By inserting the ‘rēpham/ra’ element (a seed-like phonetic/alchemical activator) and by arranging the letters in prescribed positions—front/back, left/right—ending in a final ‘tail’ (a concluding syllable or the lower/base point), one sets up a yantra-like geometry (“corner by corner,” i.e., triangular placements). Worship performed to the Mother-force named or encoded as “Vāmi–Abhirāmi” through this letter-geometry is said to yield an un-diminishing flourishing in worldly life.
1) Sound (śabda) and consciousness (citta) as divinities: The verse pairs “sattam” (audible vibration / mantra-sound / manifest resonance) with Śiva, and “cittam” (mind-stuff, attention, inner knowing) with Viṣṇu. This is not a sectarian hierarchy but a mapping: Śiva as the principle of pure vibration/awareness, Viṣṇu as the principle that pervades, orders, and sustains cognition and life.
2) Reversal/interchange ("Sivan–Māl māri"): Siddhar texts often claim that by subtle operations (mantra, breath, inner heat) the usual polarity of principles can be made to “swap.” Here it is triggered by introducing “rēpam” (ரேபம்), commonly understood as the ‘r’ sound/marker (rēpha). In mantra-logic, altering a single phoneme can “turn” a deity-as-function—suggesting that divinity is accessed as a structure of sound rather than as a fixed icon.
3) “Rēpam/ra” as an activator: The ‘ra’ element frequently carries connotations of fire/solar force, catalytic heat, and energizing penetration (a motif that can be read yogically as raising inner heat, and alchemically as ignition of transformation). Thus, adding ‘ra’ is not mere spelling; it is an energetic instruction.
4) Geometry of letters: “All the dancing letters, corner by corner” points to a practice of placing syllables into angular/triangular configurations—typical of Śākta yantra traditions, where triangles (kōṇam) signify Śakti and the dynamic unfolding of power. The “dance” (kūttu) image hints that letters are living forces with movement, not inert signs.
5) “Front/back, left/right, joined at the tail”: This can be read as (a) a technical instruction for arranging syllables around a central seed and then appending a final syllable (“tail” = ending), or (b) a yogic map—left/right as iḍā/piṅgalā currents, joined at the “tail” as the lower pole/base where forces are first knotted and then unified. The text keeps both readings available.
6) Prosperity without decline: The promised “flourishing without lowering” can be taken as worldly fortune, but in Siddhar idiom it can also mean a stabilized life-force (ojas/prāṇa) and a mind not prone to collapse—material and inner stability emerging from harmonizing sound, mind, and Śakti through disciplined ritual/inner practice.