Golden Lay Verses

Verse 301 (மந்திர வைப்பு)

தமிழ் பாடல்

வாசியினைப் பிறையார விட்டோன் வாழ்க்கை

வயதீரெட் டாயிரமாம் வளமை காணே

வாசியினை பிந்துமணி யாக்கிக் கொண்டான்

வபதறுபத் தாயிரமாய் வயங்கு மென்பார்

வாசியினை நாதாந்த வசமாக் கிட்டான்

வயதுகணக் கில்லையடா வாழ்வான் வாழ்வான்

வாசியினை யுண்மணிக்கே வார்த்தா னப்பா

வானமரன் நித்யசிரஞ் சீவி தானே

Transliteration

vaasiyinaip piraiyaar vittoon vaazhkai

vayatheeret taayiramaam vaLamai kaaNae

vaasiyinai pinthumaNi yaakkik koNdaan

vapathaRupath thaayiramaay vayangu menbaar

vaasiyinai naathaantha vasamaak kittaan

vayatukaNak killaiyadaa vaazhvaan vaazhvaan

vaasiyinai yuNmaNikkae vaarththaa nappaa

vaanamaran nithyasiranj cheevi thaanae

Literal Translation

“See the prosperity of the one who has ‘let the Vāsi’ go to/through the crescent(-bearing) [path/person]: his life becomes twenty‑eight thousand years.

He who took the Vāsi and made it a ‘Bindu‑jewel’—they say his age shines as sixty thousand.

He who set the Vāsi under the sway of ‘Nāda‑anta’—there is no counting of his age, sir; he will live, he will live.

He who poured/placed the Vāsi into the ‘True‑jewel (Un‑maṇi)’—he becomes a celestial immortal, a Nitya‑Cirañjīvi (ever‑long‑lived) indeed.”

Interpretive Translation

When the yogin redirects and stills the moving breath‑force (vāsi/prāṇa) into subtler inner stations—first into a lunar (cooling) current, then into bindu as an inner “jewel” of conserved essence, then into the terminus of inner sound (nāda‑anta), and finally into the unmani/“true jewel” state beyond ordinary mind—longevity expands from an extraordinary but still measurable span, to a still greater span, and finally to a condition described as “beyond calculation,” i.e., deathless or functionally immortal.

Philosophical Explanation

This verse is structured as a graded map of Siddhar yoga where mastery over vāsi (often: the breath, prāṇavāyu, or the subtle current that rides the breath) yields increasing freedom from time.

1) “Vāsi … to/through the crescent (பிறை, pirai)” can indicate a lunar/Idā‑type cooling channel, or the moon symbolism of Śiva (the crescent‑wearer). In Siddhar physiology, “cooling” and “stilling” the winds prevents the body’s inner heat from wasting vital essences. Hence the promise of a vast but still finite lifespan (“28,000”).

2) “Making vāsi into bindu‑maṇi” points to a yogic–alchemical conversion: the restless breath‑wind is refined into bindu (the subtle “drop,” also resonant with reproductive essence/ojas), described as a maṇi (jewel). This is a standard Siddhar trope for preserving and sublimating semen/ojas and transmuting it into tejas and higher vitality—thus a greater lifespan (“60,000”).

3) “Nāda‑anta” (the ‘end/terminus of sound’) evokes interior yogic audition (anāhata nāda). When vāsi is made subservient to, or absorbed into, the culminating inner sound, the breath becomes extremely subtle; ordinary metabolic time is said to loosen. Therefore the text shifts from large numbers to “no counting of age.”

4) “Un‑maṇi / uṇ‑maṇi” is deliberately cryptic: it can mean the ‘true jewel,’ or the ‘jewel within,’ and it strongly resonates with unmani (the mind‑transcending absorption used in Tamil/Saiva yogic vocabularies). Placing vāsi there implies the final interiorization of prāṇa into a non‑dual stillness. The result is styled as “vāṉamaran” (a deathless celestial) and “nitya‑cirañjīvi” (ever‑long‑lived)—not merely long life, but a state beyond ordinary decay.

The numbers (28,000; 60,000) need not be read as biological claims; Siddhar texts frequently use hyperbolic lifespans as coded markers for stages of prāṇic mastery. They also may allude to breath‑counts and time‑cycles (how breath governs the sense of time), while keeping the teaching veiled.

Key Concepts

  • vāsi (breath/prāṇa; the moving vital current)
  • pirai (crescent moon symbolism; lunar cooling principle; Śiva’s crescent)
  • bindu (subtle drop; conserved essence/ojas; alchemical seed)
  • maṇi (jewel; perfected essence)
  • nāda (inner sound; anāhata)
  • nāda‑anta (culmination/terminus of nāda; deep absorption)
  • un‑maṇi / uṇ‑maṇi (true jewel / jewel within; resonates with unmani-samādhi)
  • longevity as a sign of prāṇic mastery
  • Siddhar alchemy of preserving and transmuting vital essences

Ambiguities or Multiple Readings

  • “பிறையார விட்டோன்” can mean (a) sending vāsi into a lunar channel (Idā), (b) offering/handing vāsi to the crescent‑wearer (Śiva), or (c) ‘letting go of’ the moon (mind) via breath mastery; the grammar permits more than one devotional–physiological reading.
  • “வயதீரெட் டாயிரமாம்” (28,000) and “அறுபத் தாயிரம்” (60,000) may be literal hyperbole, symbolic stage-markers, or coded references to breath/time calculations; the text does not fix one interpretation.
  • “பிந்துமணி” may point primarily to seminal/ojas preservation, or more abstractly to the ‘bindu’ at the cranial center (a yogic locus) experienced as a luminous ‘jewel.’
  • “நாதாந்த வசம்” could mean controlling vāsi by means of nāda practice, or vāsi becoming absorbed into the final nāda where control is no longer ‘effortful’—two different yogic emphases.
  • “யுண்மணிக்கே வார்த்தான்” (poured/placed into the true jewel) may indicate a final samādhi state (unmani), or an alchemical ‘placement’ of prāṇa into a perfected inner substance; the verse intentionally keeps the mechanism veiled.
  • “வானமரன்” can mean a deva-like immortal, but also functions as a poetic marker for ‘one who has transcended earthly decay’; it may not imply a literal celestial migration.
  • “நித்யசிரஞ் சீவி” is likely “nitya-cirañjīvi” (ever-long-lived), but the surface Tamil can also evoke ‘always grooming/renewing,’ i.e., perpetual youth—an intentional doubleness.