Golden Lay Verses

Verse 278 (மந்திர வைப்பு)

தமிழ் பாடல்

அந்தணனே காயித்ரி யமைப்பைக் காண்பான்

அதற்குள்ளே ஸாவித்ரி யொளியைப் பூண்பான்

அந்தமுறுஞ் சரஸ்வதியின் முடிமே லேறி

அநிருத்த மாமாத்யா தன்னைப் போற்றும்

இந்தவித மிதைச்செய்வா ருலகத் தில்லை

இதுசெய்தால் சித்தனடா சித்தன் சித்தன்

தொந்தமிலாத் தூயனடா ப்ரஹ்ம ஞானி

துன்பறுசந் த்யாதேவிச் சூக்கந் தானே

Transliteration

antaṇaṉē kāyitri yamaiappaik kāṇpāṉ

ataṟkuḷḷē sāvitri yoḷiyaip pūṇpāṉ

antamuṟuñ sarasvatiyiṉ muṭimē lēṟi

anirutta māmāttyā taṉṉaip pōṟṟum

intavita mitaiśceyvā rulakat tillai

ituceytāl cittanaṭā cittan cittan

tontamilāt tūyaṉaṭā prahma ñāṉi

tuṉpaṟucaṉ tsyāttēvich cūkkant tāṉē.

Literal Translation

“O antaṇan (Brahmin / sacred-knower), he will see the arrangement (structure) of Gāyatrī;

within that, he will wear (take on) the radiance of Sāvitrī.

Ascending to the crown/top-knot of Sarasvatī that brings the ‘end’ to an end,

he will praise Aniruddha, the great minister/counsellor.

In this manner, there are none in the world who do this;

if one does this, he is a siddha—siddha, siddha.

He is the blemishless pure one—a knower of Brahman;

he himself is the subtle essence (sūkṣma) of Sandhyā Devī that cuts away sorrow.”

Interpretive Translation

The true “brahmin” is the one who can perceive how the Gāyatrī is “set” (as a living inner design). Entering that design, he assumes the solar luminosity called Sāvitrī. He then rises to the highest crest of Sarasvatī—suggesting the summit of the speech-current / wisdom-current—where finitude is ended. There he venerates Aniruddha, the inner regulator (often associated with the governance of mind and vital force), as the supreme counsellor within. Very few enact such an inward Sandhyā. Whoever does, becomes a Siddha: purified, bondless, established in Brahma-jñāna, and embodying the subtle Sandhyā-power that severs suffering at its root.

Philosophical Explanation

1) Triad of Gāyatrī–Sāvitrī–Sarasvatī as an inner yoga (not merely deities): In Vedic and later traditions, the Sandhyā practice is linked to three aspects—morning/meter as Gāyatrī, midday solar force as Sāvitrī, and evening speech/wisdom as Sarasvatī. Siddhar language often turns this into an inner process: (a) “seeing the arrangement of Gāyatrī” can mean discerning mantra-structure as mapped onto breath, nāḍīs, tattvas, or body-centers; (b) “wearing Sāvitrī’s light” suggests the assimilation of tejas (solar prāṇa), a yogic ‘investiture’ rather than an external ornament; (c) “climbing Sarasvatī’s crown” points to the culminating rise of the current associated with speech/knowledge—either to the cranial summit (sahasrāra / brahmarandhra) or to the ‘crown’ of refined inner utterance (parā-vāk).

2) Aniruddha as the inner governor: In Vaiṣṇava symbolism, Aniruddha is one of the four vyūhas and is frequently associated with mind-management and the ordering of the inner faculties. In a Siddhar-yogic reading, praising Aniruddha as “great minister” implies honoring the internal intelligence that counsels, restrains, and harmonizes prāṇa, mind, and senses—an indispensable condition for the ascent described.

3) “Ending the end” and “Sandhyā’s subtle essence”: The phrase about reaching a place where the ‘end’ is ended can be read as overcoming death-bound limitation (anta) through internal union. “Sandhyā Devī’s sūkṣma” suggests that the true Sandhyā is not the outer time-junction alone (dawn/noon/dusk), but the subtle junction within—classically the pause/meeting in breath (kumbhaka), or the junction of iḍā–piṅgalā in suṣumṇā—where sorrow is ‘cut’ because the oscillation that sustains bondage is stilled.

4) Siddha and Brahma-jñānī: The refrain “siddha, siddha, siddha” emphasizes attainment through praxis: purification (freedom from ‘tontam’—taint/old entanglement), stabilization of luminosity, and non-dual knowledge. The verse asserts rarity (“none in the world”) to indicate an esoteric interiorization of orthodox Sandhyā/Gāyatrī into direct realization.

Key Concepts

  • Gāyatrī as mantra-structure / inner design (அமைப்பு)
  • Sāvitrī as inner solar radiance (ஒளி), tejas–prāṇa assimilation
  • Sarasvatī as wisdom/speech-current; ‘crown’ as summit (mudi)
  • Sandhyā (junction) as outer rite and inner yogic juncture (breath/nāḍī meeting)
  • Aniruddha as inner regulator (mind/prāṇa governance) and Vaiṣṇava vyūha symbolism
  • Siddhi as realized stabilization (சித்தன்)
  • Brahma-jñāna (ப்ரஹ்ம ஞானி) and purity/freedom from bondage

Ambiguities or Multiple Readings

  • அந்தணனே: can be a direct address to a ‘Brahmin’, or a coded term for the ‘inner brahmin’ (one established in brahmanical purity/knowledge), not necessarily a caste marker.
  • காயித்ரி யமைப்பு (‘Gāyatrī’s arrangement’): may mean the metrical/phonetic structure of the Gāyatrī mantra, a ritual sequence (Sandhyāvandanam), or an esoteric mapping onto body-centers, tattvas, or breath counts.
  • ஸாவித்ரி யொளியைப் பூண்பான் (‘wear Sāvitrī’s light’): could be devotional (adorning oneself with divine light), yogic (drawing in solar prāṇa/tejas), or alchemical (refining internal ‘fire’ into stable luminosity/ojas).
  • அந்தமுறுஞ் சரஸ்வதியின் முடிமேல் (‘Sarasvatī’s crown where the end is broken’): may indicate sahasrāra/brahmarandhra, the ‘crown’ of speech (parā-vāk), or the completion of the third Sandhyā (evening) in the triadic cycle.
  • அநிருத்த மாமாத்யா: ‘māmātyā’ can be read as ‘great minister/counsellor’; Aniruddha may be a Vaiṣṇava deity-name, an epithet meaning ‘unobstructed’, or a symbol of the faculty that cannot be restrained once awakened (e.g., a liberated current of prāṇa/mind).
  • உலகத் தில்லை (‘none in the world’): can mean literal rarity, or a rhetorical move to separate outer performance from inner realization—many do the rite, few actualize its ‘sūkṣma’.
  • சூக்கம் (sūkṣma): can mean ‘subtle essence/secret’, ‘subtle body operation’, or a coded pointer to kumbhaka/inner junction where suffering is cut.