சீக்கையுறும் போகமது சீச்சீச் சக்கை
தேருங்கால் சுடுகாட்டைச் சேரும் தக்கை
வாழ்க்கையது பொய்ப்பொய்கை வாழ்வு செய்கை
வாசியவ ளைப்பிடித்தே வழிபா டுற்றால்
தாக்கவரும் தர்க்கமெலாம் குதர்க்க மாகும்
தாவவரும் மார்க்கமெலாம் மாயா ஜாலம்
போக்கிவிடுன் னுள்ளிருக்கும் போதங் கண்டே
போதாந்தச் சித்தபுரப் பொன்னா வாய் நீ
cheekkaiyuRum pOgamadhu cheechcheech chakkai
thErungkaal sudugaattai(ch) sErum thakkai
vaazhkkaiyadhu poyppoykai vaazhvu seykai
vaasiyava LaippidiththE vazhipaa duRRaal
thaakkavarum tharkkamelaam kutharkka maagum
thaavavarum maarkkamelaam maayaa jaalam
pOkkividun nuLLirukkum pOdhang kaNdE
pOdhaanthach chithapurap ponnaa vaay nee
The pleasure that brings bondage—“chee, chee!”—is mere refuse.
When you examine it closely, it is fit only to end up in the cremation-ground.
This life is a false, false pond; living and acting in it is itself deception.
If, having seized/held on to “Vāciyavaḷ” (the Vāsi-woman), you perform worship,
then all the disputations that come will turn into bad disputation,
and all the paths that appear will be a net of Māyā.
Driving it away, see the Awareness (bodham) that stands within you;
you—become the “golden-mouthed” one of the siddha-city of Bodhānta.
Sensual enjoyment that tightens the knot of bondage is condemned as spiritual waste; scrutinized, it leads only to the cremation-ground—death and ash.
Worldly life is compared to a mirage-like pond: actions and achievements within it are unstable and deceptively compelling.
Instead of multiplying outer worship and debate, the verse points to an inner discipline: seize and steady “Vāciyavaḷ” (often read as the breath-power/Śakti accessed through vāsi-yoga, i.e., breath restraint and inner absorption). When that inner power is held and worship becomes inward, argumentative reasoning collapses into sterile quibbling and the many advertised ‘paths’ are recognized as Māyā’s show.
By rejecting/expelling the outward-tending impulse and turning inward, one directly beholds the bodham (awareness) already present. In that realization—called Bodhānta (the ‘end’ or culmination of awareness/knowledge)—the practitioner attains siddha-status, symbolized as a “golden mouth/tongue”: speech becomes authoritative, mantra-effective, and possibly ‘alchemized’ (transformed) by realization.
1) Critique of bhoga (enjoyment) and the body’s end: The opening lines treat ordinary pleasure as “sīkkai/śīkkai” (that which binds) and “cakkai” (waste/refuse). The cremation-ground (cuṭukāṭu) is not only a reminder of mortality but a siddha-symbol: all bodily pride and sensual triumph end in ash.
2) The world as “false pond” (poyp-poykai): A pond appears to offer sustenance and delight, yet here it is doubly negated—“false-false”—suggesting instability, reflected appearances, and the mind’s tendency to mistake surface for depth. This aligns with a Māyā-critique: lived experience is not denied as non-existent, but exposed as unreliable when taken as ultimate.
3) “Vāciyavaḷ” and inner worship: Siddhar idiom often personifies yogic forces as feminine (Śakti). “Vāsi” can imply breath-control/retention (vāsi-yoga), the subtle current of prāṇa, or an inner ‘enthralling’ power that must be ‘caught’ (piṭittē). Worship (vaḻipāṭu) becomes internal: stabilizing breath/prāṇa and attention rather than external ritual. The verse does not romanticize devotion; it redirects it from outer forms to embodied yogic method.
4) Reason’s limits: “All arguments become counter-arguments” suggests that once Māyā is seen, discursive debate is recognized as circular. This is not anti-intellectualism so much as a hierarchy claim: logic cannot deliver liberation by itself; it can only rearrange appearances. Similarly, “all paths become Māyā’s net” warns against spiritual consumerism and proliferating methods without direct inner seeing.
5) Bodham and Bodhānta: “Bodham” is immediate awareness/gnosis. “Bodhānta” can be read as the culmination of that knowing—akin to a siddha’s experiential Vedānta, but not necessarily confined to scholastic Vedānta. The shift is from externalized striving to recognition of the inner ground.
6) ‘Golden mouth’ as siddha-sign: “Ponnaa-vāy” (golden mouth/tongue) can indicate (a) speech that is true, potent, and mantra-charged, (b) the alchemical motif of transmutation—where inner realization ‘turns’ ordinary faculties into ‘gold,’ or (c) a coded reference to rasavāda (alchemy) where perfected bodily-subtle processes are poetically marked by gold imagery. The verse keeps this emblem intentionally polyvalent.