Golden Lay Verses

Verse 97 (மணி வைப்பு)

தமிழ் பாடல்

மகுடத்தா னிடப்பாகம் வைத்தான் பெண்ணை

மாமுனிவர் கண்டுவந்து கரங்கு வித்தார்

சகடத்தான் அரிகரியான் சாக்கி யங்கே

சது மறையான் முப்பாட்டன் சார்பு மங்கே

நகிடத்தான் குருநமச்சி வாய மங்கே

நாடியமூம் மூதாக்கள் நடப்பு மங்கே

அகடத்தான் விகடத்தான் மாயை யங்கே

ரஹரா யாவைக்கும் யாவை யங்கே

Transliteration

Makudaththaa nidappaagam vaiththaan pennai

Maamunivar kanduvandhu karangu viththaar

Sakadaththaan arikariyaan saakki yangae

Sathu maraiyaan muppaattan saarbu mangae

Nakidaththaan gurunamachchi vaaya mangae

Naadiyamoom moothaakkal nadappu mangae

Akadaththaan vigadaththaan maayai yangae

Rahara yaavaikkum yaavai yangae

Literal Translation

“In the crown-region, on the left side, he placed the woman.

The great sages saw (it), came, and ‘karangu’‑taught / caused (them) to whirl.

There are the ‘Sakaṭa‑one’, the Hari–Hara, and the Śākya (Buddha) there.

There is the knower of the four Vedas; there is the affiliation of the ‘muppāṭṭan’ (great‑grandfather / three‑elder).

There is the Guru; there is ‘Namaśśivāya’ there.

There the nāḍis and the ancient ones (mūta / elders, first principles) have their movement.

There are the ‘inner‑one’ and the ‘outer‑one’; there is māyā there.

Rahara— for everything, everything is there.”

Interpretive Translation

At the “crown” (the upper, head‑top locus of yogic realization), the Siddhar points to a left‑side, feminine placement—Śakti / ida‑current—set into the very seat of sovereignty. Those who truly see it (the great sages) transmit it obliquely, by a teaching that can bewilder, invert, or make one “turn” inward.

In that same subtle “there,” sectarian figures and doctrines—Hari and Hara together, the Śākya (Buddha), the Vedic fourfold authority, the primordial ancestor/creator principle—are said to coexist. The guru‑principle and the mantra “Namaśśivāya” also reside there.

In that locus the nāḍis and primal constituents (tattvas / elements / first principles) circulate, and the dualities of inner/outer along with māyā are present. The refrain “rahara” marks the matter as secret: in that single place, “everything is everything,” i.e., the whole cosmos and its paths are contained in the realized center.

Philosophical Explanation

1) Microcosm doctrine (uḍal = ulagam): The repeated “aṅkē” (“there”) works like a pointer: not to an external shrine but to an internal seat where multiple religious identities and metaphysical categories are gathered. Siddhar literature often asserts that what appears divided as sects, gods, and scriptures externally is unified in the subtle body.

2) “Crown” + “left side” + “woman”: “Makudam” (crown) readily suggests the head‑top/sahasrāra or a royal “sovereign” station of consciousness. “Left side” strongly evokes the ida‑nāḍi and the lunar/feminine principle. “Placed the woman” can be read as installing Śakti in the highest center (rather than treating Śakti as merely worldly), echoing the Ardhanārīśvara logic: liberation is the integration of masculine–feminine currents, not their denial.

3) Syncretic inclusivity as a yogic claim: Naming Hari–Hara, Śākya, and the Vedas side‑by‑side is not casual eclecticism; it functions as a critique of exclusivism. The claim is that in direct realization (especially at the upper center where currents converge), these distinctions are seen as different languages for a single ground.

4) Nāḍis and “mūta / moothākkal”: The verse inserts technical physiology (“nāḍi”) alongside “ancient ones/firsts,” which can indicate the movement of tattvas (principles), bhūtas (elements), or primal forces within the subtle channels. The ‘place’ described is therefore not merely theological but yogic‑anatomical.

5) Māyā and the inner/outer pair: By placing māyā “there,” the verse avoids a simplistic “māyā is elsewhere” dualism. Even at the summit, appearance and concealment can arise; what changes is the knower’s relation to them. “Agadathān / vigadathān” can also hint that the same reality appears as ‘serious/within’ and ‘playful/without’—the world as divine sport and as inner mystery.

6) “Rahara” as secrecy marker/mantric cipher: “Rahara” can be read as “rahasya/secret” compressed into a chant-like form, a deliberate seal that both reveals (there is a key) and withholds (it must be entered through practice/guru).

Key Concepts

  • Makudam (crown) as a yogic locus (sahasrāra/upper center)
  • Left-side principle (ida-nāḍi; lunar/feminine current)
  • Śakti installed in the highest center (“placed the woman”)
  • Ardhanārīśvara-type integration (male–female unity)
  • Syncretism: Hari–Hara, Śākya (Buddha), Vedic authority
  • Guru principle and the mantra “Namaśśivāya”
  • Nāḍis (subtle channels) and movement of first principles (tattvas/bhūtas)
  • Māyā present even in the ‘highest’—nondual handling of illusion
  • Rahara as a secrecy seal / mantric cipher
  • “Everything in everything” (non-sectarian totality within the realized center)

Ambiguities or Multiple Readings

  • “மகுடத்தான்” can mean a literal crown/kingly symbol, the head-top chakra, or the “sovereign” state of consciousness; the verse does not force only one.
  • “இடப்பாகம் வைத்தான் பெண்ணை” may indicate Ardhanārīśvara (Śiva bearing the feminine on the left), or more technically the placement/activation of ida-Śakti in the crown center.
  • “கரங்கு வித்தார்” is semantically unstable: it can suggest ‘caused to whirl/spin,’ ‘confounded,’ ‘made one tremble,’ or ‘taught by making (the mind) turn’—consistent with Siddhar indirect pedagogy.
  • “சகடத்தான்” could be an epithet tied to a myth (e.g., the slayer of a cart-demon) or a coded label for a force/vehicle (‘cart’ as body). The text leaves it as a name-sign rather than a clear referent.
  • “அரிகரியான்” can be read as Hari–Hara (Viṣṇu–Śiva unity) or as a descriptive epithet (“dark/terrible one”); the neighboring “சாக்கி” encourages a ‘religious-figure’ reading but does not settle it.
  • “சாக்கி” most naturally points to the Śākya (Buddha), but could also function as a generic marker for heterodox paths; the verse may be deliberately leveling ‘orthodox/heterodox.’
  • “சது மறையான்” is ‘knower of the four Vedas’ (Vedic orthodoxy), yet in Siddhar usage it may also stand for ‘scriptural mind’ that is then absorbed into yogic directness.
  • “முப்பாட்டன்” can mean (a) great-grandfather/primordial ancestor (often mapped to Brahmā/creator), (b) the ‘three elders’ (Trimūrti), or (c) lineage/paramparā; “சார்பு” (affiliation/refuge) allows multiple linkages.
  • “மூதாக்கள்” may denote ‘elders’ (ancients), ‘mūtas/bhūtas’ (elements), or ‘primordial categories/tattvas’; Siddhar diction often compresses these registers.
  • “அகடத்தான் விகடத்தான்” can be ‘inner/outer,’ ‘serious/playful,’ or ‘real/contrary’; it can name a metaphysical polarity or a divine epithet, leaving the ontological status purposely open.
  • “ரஹரா” can be taken as a sound-seal for “rahasya” (secret), a mantra-like exclamation, or a yogic cue; the verse does not explain it, preserving initiatory opacity.