Golden Lay Verses

Verse 57 (ஆன்ம வைப்பு)

தமிழ் பாடல்

தாதித்ரி சேதித்திரி சாதித் தல்லோ

காயித்ரி சாவித்ரி வேதித் தல்லோ

ஆயத்ரி காலத்து

மாயித்ரி மாலத்ரி வாதித் தல்லோ

மணைவ தான்மா

Transliteration

tāditri cētittiri cādit tallō

kāyitri cāvitri vētit tallō

āyaṭri kālattu

māyitri mālatri vātit tallō

maṇaiva tānmā.

Literal Translation

“Dhātitri, Cētittiri—have they not been accomplished?

Kāyitri, Sāvitri—have they not been ‘known/understood’?

In the time/season of Āyitri,

Māyitri, Mālatri, Vātitri—have they not been spoken/expounded?

The consort (wife/bride) is the very soul (ātmā).”

Interpretive Translation

“The ‘tri-forms’ that nourish, awaken, and bring attainment are to be mastered; the ‘tri-forms’ of body, life-force, and sacred knowing are to be truly discerned. When the right inner timing arrives, illusion, impurity-bonds, and the winds of breath are addressed and brought under discipline. Then the inner consort—Śakti as the bride—is recognized as none other than one’s own Self.”

Philosophical Explanation

The verse is built as a deliberately cryptic chain of near-rhyming names ending in “-tri,” repeatedly sealed with the rhetorical particle “ல்லோ” (allō: “is it not so?” / “has it not been done?”). Siddhar diction often uses such sound-clusters to hide technical instruction in what looks like a list of names.

1) Triadic framing (“-tri”): The recurring “tri” can be read in at least two ways simultaneously: (a) as a suffix that evokes goddess-names/mantra-names (e.g., Gāyatrī, Sāvitrī), and (b) as a marker of triads central to yoga and Siddha physiology—body/prāṇa/mind; icchā/kriyā/jñāna; three impurities (mala); or three nāḍīs.

2) From outer mantra to inner process: “Gāyatrī / Sāvitrī / Veditri” (Veda-like/knowing-related) can point outwardly to Vedic mantra-recitation and sacred learning, yet Siddhar works frequently redirect such references inward: mantra becomes breath-regulation, “Veda” becomes direct gnosis, and “recitation” becomes a transformation of the practitioner’s internal states.

3) “Āyitri kālattu” (“in Ayitri time”): This suggests an appointed ‘time’—either literal (a prescribed time of practice/ritual) or yogic (a ripening stage when inner conditions align). Siddhar texts often insist that success depends on kālam (right timing/season), not merely effort.

4) “Māyitri / Mālatri / Vātitri”: These can be read as three key obstacles or domains of work: māyā (delusion/appearance), mala (stain/impurity/bond), and vāta/vāyu (wind—breath, prāṇa, bodily airs). In a yogic reading, the practitioner must (i) see through māyā, (ii) loosen the binding malas (āṇava/karma/māyā are traditional tri-malas), and (iii) discipline vāyu through prāṇāyāma and internal regulation.

5) “Maṇai-va(t) tān-mā” (“the wife is the soul”): Siddhar “marriage” language commonly encodes inner union—Śiva-Śakti, jīva-Param, or the meeting of prāṇa and apāna (or iḍā and piṅgalā) in suṣumṇā. Thus “wife/bride” can signify Śakti/kuṇḍalinī or the intimate inner counterpart through which realization occurs. The line can also be read more starkly: what one seeks as ‘other’ (consort) is one’s own ātmā.

Key Concepts

  • Triads (threefold disciplines/states)
  • Gāyatrī / Sāvitrī (mantra and inner transformation)
  • Kālam (right time/season of practice)
  • Māyā (illusion)
  • Mala (impurity/bond; tri-mala possibility)
  • Vāta/Vāyu (breath, prāṇa, bodily airs)
  • Śakti as inner consort (mystic marriage)
  • Ātman (Self) recognition

Ambiguities or Multiple Readings

  • Whether the “-tri” words are to be taken as actual named goddesses/mantras (Dhātrī, Gāyatrī, Sāvitrī, etc.) or as coded labels for triadic yogic principles.
  • “Veditri” may mean “that which is of the Veda / pertaining to knowing (vid-)” rather than a fixed proper name; it can imply scriptural learning or direct inner knowledge.
  • “Vātitri” can mean “debated/expounded/spoken” (vād-) or hint at “vāta” (wind) and thus prāṇa-control; Siddhar wordplay often keeps both senses active.
  • “Āyitri kālattu” may be a literal ritual-time instruction, a stage of maturation in sādhanā, or a reference to an internal ‘time’ (breath-cycle/kuṇḍalinī moment).
  • “Maṇai-va(t) tān-mā” can read as (a) ‘the wife is the ātmā’ (identity teaching), (b) ‘the inner bride (Śakti) is the ātmā’ (tantric/yogic union), or (c) an intentionally paradoxical collapse of otherness into Self.