சோத்துத் துருத்தியை மூத்திரப் பையினைச்
சோத்திர மென்பதென் பீத்திறமே
ஆத்திக மானதோர் சேத்திர மானபின்
சாத்திர மாமிதே மீத்திறமே
Sōttut turuttiyai mūttirap paiyinaic
Sōttira meṉpateṉ pīttiṟamē
Āttika māṉatōr cēttira māṉapiṉ
Sāttira māmite mīttiṟamē.
The food-bellows, the bag of urine—
calling it a “stōtiram/sōthiram” is my (mere) “pī-thiram” (filthy/low skill).
But once it becomes a kṣetra (sacred field) for the āstika (the faith-filled),
this itself becomes the śāstra—this is the higher method/way.
This body, which is plainly a contrivance for digestion and excretion, is not something to be romanticized with pious language. Yet, when disciplined by inner devotion and practice, the same body becomes the true holy site: the living ‘field’ where realization happens. That inner transformation—not external praise—constitutes the real scripture and the superior path.
Karai Siddhar uses deliberately abrasive physiology (food-processing “bellows,” urine “bag”) to puncture spiritual vanity. The first movement is disillusionment: the body-identity is reduced to functions that end in waste, undermining pride, ritual display, and the tendency to treat religiosity as mere recitation or verbal praise. The second movement reverses the negation: for the āstika (here, not a sectarian label but one whose mind is anchored in ‘that-ness’/the Real), the very same body is re-read as kṣetra—an interior pilgrimage site. In Siddhar logic, ‘śāstra’ is not primarily book-authority; it is the tested knowledge of transforming the body-mind field through tapas, vāsi/yogic regulation, and inner fire. The verse holds both truths at once: the body is contemptible as an ego’s ornament, yet indispensable as the laboratory of liberation.