மந்திரம் யந்திரம் தந்திரம் யாவும்சு
தந்திர மல்லவே சந்திரனே
அந்தர வானத் தனந்தர மானவ
கந்தர மானத ராதரமே
நாத்திறம் சூத்திரம் கோத்திரம் யாவையும்
காத்திர மற்றதோர் பேய்த்திறனே
ஆத்திரமும் கொளும் நேத்திரமும் தூய
பாத்திர மல்லவீண் சூத்திரமே
mantiram yantiram tantiram yaavumcu
tantira mallave cantiranē
antara vaanat tanantara maanava
kantara maanata raataramē.
naattiram sūttiram kōttiram yaavaiyum
kaattira maRRatoor pēyttiranē
aattiramum koLum nēttiramum tūya
paattira mallavīṇ sūttiramē
“Mantra, yantra, and tantra—none of these (in themselves) are (the true) tantra, O Chandra (Moon/one addressed).
In the inner sky that is endless,
Kandha (Skanda/Murugan) is the support.
Skill of tongue (speech), sutras, and gotras (lineage/caste)—all of these,
when not guarded/held (by true discipline), are but a ghostly craft.
With eyes that take in/harbor ‘āttiram’ (fury/heat/agitation),
(it is) not a pure vessel; (thus) the sutra is futile.”
Ritual technologies—mantra, yantra, tantra—do not, by themselves, amount to the liberating “method.”
The real ‘support’ is found in the boundless inner expanse (the subtle inner sky), where Kandha (the guiding deity/guru-principle) stands as the ādhāra.
Mere eloquence, scriptural formulas, and pride of lineage—when not protected by inner restraint and purity—devolve into lower occultism, a kind of “ghost-power.”
If the gaze (outer or inner) is mixed with rage/heat and agitation, the practitioner is not a clean vessel; then even sacred aphorisms become empty words.
This verse works by contrasting outer apparatus with inner ground.
1) Critique of externalized “tantra”: The triad “mantra–yantra–tantra” is acknowledged as real currency in Siddhar and Śaiva-Śākta practice, yet Karai Siddhar warns that these are not self-validating. They can become technique without transformation. The address “Chandra” can be read literally as “O Moon,” or symbolically as the mind (often likened to the moon); in that reading, the verse admonishes the mind that chases methods while avoiding purification.
2) “Inner sky” (antar-vānam / antaḥ-ākāśa): The “endless inner sky” is a standard yogic symbol for the subtle inner space where awareness rests (often associated with the heart-space or the space of consciousness). The phrase “support” (ādhāra) suggests that the true foundation of practice is not external ritual, but the interior seat where realization occurs.
3) Kandha as ādhāra: “Kandha” commonly denotes Murugan/Skanda. In Siddhar idiom, Murugan can function as (a) deity of inner valor and piercing knowledge (the spear/vel as discriminating insight), (b) the guru-principle, or (c) a code for an inner power that “supports” ascent (sometimes mapped onto kuṇḍalinī dynamics without stating it plainly). The verse does not force a single mapping; it keeps the referent open while asserting that liberation is anchored in an inner support, not in display of technique.
4) Social-textual markers as ‘ghostly craft’: “Speech-skill, sutra, gotra” points to scholarship, formulaic religiosity, and inherited identity. When these are “unprotected” (i.e., not held within ethical restraint, yogic discipline, and inner purification), they become “pey-thiṟaṉ”—a phrase that can mean deceptive sorcery, trancey charisma, or low-grade siddhis that mimic spirituality. The Siddhar critique is not anti-text but anti-vanity: words and lineages without transformation become a haunt.
5) Purity of the ‘vessel’: “Pāttiram” (vessel) can denote the body–mind as the crucible in yogic/alchemical work. If the “eyes” (perception, attention, or the inner ‘eye’) are colored by āttiram—anger, heat, agitation (and, in a medical undertone, excess pitta/inner heat)—then the vessel is impure, and “sutra” becomes “vīn” (vain). In Siddhar logic, correct method works only when the container is refined; otherwise, practice produces distortion or mere performance.