The verse is a rhetorical reversal of ordinary valuation. The Siddhar contrasts:

1) "உட்பொருள்" (inner substance/inner essence) and "மெய்ப்பொருள்" (true substance/real Reality): this points to the innermost principle—often read as the Self/Śiva-consciousness, or the imperishable ground discerned through yogic insight.

2) "பொய்ப்பொருள்" (false substance) and "லோகம்" (the world): the phenomenal world is not denied as empirically experienced, but is called “false” in the sense of being unstable, perishable, and liable to delude the mind into mistaking the transient for the permanent.

3) "பொன்பொருள்" (gold-wealth / the prized treasure): “gold” functions as a metonym for all worldly value—money, possessions, prestige, sensual enjoyment. The verse implies that the capacity to be dazzled by such “gold” depends on ignorance of the inner truth. When the truth of the true Reality is ‘seen,’ the mind’s alchemy (value-transmutation) occurs: what once appeared precious is recognized as merely conventional and impermanent.

Thus the teaching is not simply moral condemnation of wealth; it is a discriminative insight (viveka) born from realization: the Real is self-validating and lasting, while worldly “treasure” is contingent and therefore not ultimately treasure. The question “who can?” indicates that continued fascination is psychologically incompatible with deep realization—unless one is acting outwardly in the world without inward attachment.