தன்னையறி யானிறைவன் தன்னைக் காணான்
தண்ணியிலாத் தாமரையும் சாம்பிப் போகும்
தண்ணியிலாத் தாமரையும் சாம்பல் போலத்
தன்னைய றியான்யோகத் தவமு மாகும்
thannaiyaRi yaaniRaivan thannaik kaaNaan
thaNNiyilaath thaamaraiyum saampip poagum
thaNNiyilaath thaamaraiyum saampal poalath
thannaiya Riyaanyookath thavamum aagum.
One who does not know himself will not see the Lord (as himself).
A lotus without water will wither and turn to ash.
Just as a lotus without water becomes like ash,
so too the yogic austerity of one who does not know himself becomes (like) ash.
Without self-knowing, even “God” is not encountered—because the seeker cannot recognize the Divine as one’s own true nature.
Like a lotus deprived of water, spiritual practice done without self-knowledge dries up, burns out, and ends as mere residue: effort without fruition.
The verse ties God-realization to ātma-jñāna (knowing oneself). The opening line is deliberately pointed: ignorance of the Self prevents the vision of the Lord, not because the Lord is absent, but because recognition requires the right inner organ—clarity of awareness.
The lotus is a standard Siddhar and yogic emblem: it can signify the heart-lotus (a center of consciousness), the mind’s purity, or the subtle body’s blooming capacity. “Water” is the condition that keeps the lotus alive; symbolically it can be read as (i) sustaining inner awareness/gnosis, (ii) prāṇa or the life-current that keeps practice living, and (iii) grace (arul) that moistens and softens the inner field. When “water” is absent, the lotus does not merely droop; it becomes “ash”—a strong image for sterility, spiritual burnout, and the aftermath of heat without nourishment.
In yogic terms, tapas produces heat; heat without the ‘water’ of discernment and Self-recognition can scorch the psyche, turning practice into dryness, pride, or mechanical ritual. In Siddha medical/alchemical sensibility, dryness and burning imply loss of vital essence (ojas/uyir-sāram) and the failure to preserve the subtle “nectar” (amṛta) that should counterbalance ascetic heat. Thus the verse critiques austerity and yoga when they are detached from self-knowledge: such practice may look intense, but it ends as “ash”—no inner flowering, no realization.