Chapter One - Verse six

The actual verse in the Tamil language

Porivaayil aintthavithan poitheer oguzkka

naerinindar needuvaz vaar

Pori vaayil

The word “pori” means senses, while “vaayil” meaning following, thus the word means “following the senses”.

Aint thavithan

“Aint, means five. The word “thavithan” has a number of meanings, but in this context, the meaning “using or enjoying” is more acceptable. Thus the meaning of the phrase of becomes “using the five senses”.

The five senses referred here are the sense of hearing (ear), touch (through the skin), sight (eyes), smell (nose) and taste (tongue). The order is as stated with the sense of hearing (ear) being the most evolved and the sense of taste (tongue) being the least evolved.

The siddhanta theology has set these orders more that 2,500 years ago and the order is not to be changed, as many explanations are based on the arrangement of the orders.

Poi theer

The word “poi” means falsehood while “theer” means without. Thus the word means "without falsehood."

Oguzkka

This word means “good character” and needs to be read with the next word of the sentence. This word cannot be use to describe “bad character”. Thus this word actually means “good” but it is always used for character, thus good character.

naeri nindar

The word “neri” is an adverb and can be translated as “putting to practice” and “nindar” is steadiness. Thus the word “Oguzkka naeri nindar” means “one who follows and is steady fast in upholding good character”.

Needu vaalz Vaar

Similar to verse 2; here we have taken both the words together as the last word is just a surfix of the previous verb which shows the future tense. As such, the word “Vaar” by itself has no meaning, except to denote the future tense for the verb.

The actual word “needuvaalz” is made up of two words, “needu” and vaalve”, and together it means “long life or everlasting life”, depending on the context of the sentence. Here both meanings are suitable. As mentioned previously, this Tamil word is also considered as a blessing.

Now one has to understand that in the Tamil culture the blessing “live for ever” is also used to mean to live a happy and prosperous life. This can be also use for verse 2, where the same word is used. Now the whole sentence can be phrased as such “One who controls and retains the five senses with steadfast good character will have an everlasting life”.

Significance to the Siddhanta theology

Here one more step to reach God is provided. Having understood, that God is unemotional and neutral, the soul needs to learn to “remove karma” by its own effort and this is explained in verse (5).

To achieve this, the soul that has the body, the life and the mind needs to learn how to control the senses, which is a combination of all these three elements.

Thus the purpose of meditation is initially to practice the control of the senses. Verse one explains this link of the soul with matter.

The essence here is “one who has no steady fast control over ones senses, cannot have good characters, a prerequisite of a happy and prosperous god life, and also to reach God.

Here also it is indirectly explained that God is beyond the five (and our) senses and most important, the soul is not the senses. The sense is a character of life and not of the soul.