குருவினடி யல்லாமல் கருவுந்தான் குருவாகா
மருவிலருள் அல்லாமல் உருவுந்தான் திருவாகா
உருவேதான் குருவானா லுளதெல்லாம் சித்தேகாண்
மருவுண்டே பிறவித்தை மருவில்லான் குருவேகாண்
kuruvinaḍi yallāmal karuvuntān kuru-vākā
maruvilaruḷ allāmal uruvuntān tiru-vākā
uru-vētān kuru-vānā luḷatellām cittēkāṇ
maruvuṇṭē piṟavittai maruvillān kuru-vēkāṇ
“Other than (by taking refuge in) the Guru’s feet, even the *karu* will not become a Guru.
Other than the grace that ‘abides/joins’ (*maruvil aruḷ*), even the form (*uru*) will not become *tiru* (sacred, auspicious).
If the very form becomes the Guru, then see: all that exists is *siddhi* / the *Siddha*.
Where there is mingling/attachment (*maruvu*), there is birth; the one without mingling/attachment is indeed the Guru—see.”
Without surrender to the Guru (symbolized by the Guru’s feet), the latent seed within—whether embryo, karma, or darkness—cannot ripen into true guidance.
Without grace that truly “takes hold” and dwells within, the body/personality remains mere form and does not become sanctified.
When one recognizes the Guru-principle in form itself (and not merely in an external figure), the entire field of existence is seen as Siddha-consciousness.
Attachment and worldly entanglement perpetuate rebirth; the true Guru is the one who is free of such entanglement, and who makes that freedom visible.
This verse moves through a classical Siddhar progression: (1) dependence on the Guru’s *aṭi* (feet) as the gateway of transformation, (2) the necessity of *aruḷ* (grace) to transmute mere *uru* (form/body) into *tiru* (sanctity), (3) a radical reorientation where “form itself” can be Guru (suggesting an inward, non-dual recognition), and (4) the criterion of liberation as *non-mingling* (*maruvillāmai*)—freedom from attachment that otherwise generates *piravi* (rebirth).
Symbolically, “Guru’s feet” functions both as devotional surrender and as a yogic pointer to a foundational ground (the ‘lowest’ that is actually the ‘highest’). “Form becoming sacred” can be read as the Siddhar concern with embodied realization: the body is not rejected, but must be made ‘tiru’ through grace—hinting at kaya-siddhi ideals without stating them openly. The line “all that exists is siddhe” compresses a non-dual insight: once the Guru is known as the principle of awareness, the whole of ‘what is’ is apprehended as Siddha-state (or as the Siddha’s expanse), not as a fragmented world.
Finally, *maruvu* is deliberately double-edged: it can mean clinging/entanglement (binding one to rebirth) or intimate joining/abiding (as in grace that truly ‘joins’). The verse therefore warns against worldly ‘mingling’ while implying that only a different kind of ‘mingling’—with grace/Guru—sanctifies form and ends birth.