Chapter One - Verse seven

The actual verse in the Tamil language

Thamakkuvamai Illathan thaalsaenthar kallaal
manak kavalai maa’tral arithu

Here the verse continues to explain what will be the result of one who has full control over his five senses and is able to hold to them steady fast.

Thamak kuvamai
This word has two words “thamaku” meaning “one self”. This one self usually refers to our own self. The other word “yuvamai” means “comparable”, read together; it means “incomparable to (me) oneself”.

Illa than
The word “illathan” means not having. Thus “thamakkuvamai illathan” means “none is comparable to oneself”.

thaal saenthar
“Thaal” mean feet of the Lord. Thus the above adjective is used to explain one more of God’s character, which means that only “God can say – “none is comparable to me”. “Saenthat” mean to link; to join or to follow.

Kallaal
This means “all” or everybody.

Thus the first sentence can be translated as “All those who join (follow the teachings of) God; who is the “incomparable One”

Now for the second sentence

Manak kavalai
“Manam” means self consciousness. “Kavalai’ means any distress that the mind will have.

maa’tral
This word mans - faltering.

arithu
This word means – very rare.

So the second verse means, having a “non faltering self consciousness”.

Thus the whole verse mans, “All those who join (follow the teachings of) God; who is the “incomparable One; will have a non faltering self consciousness” or in short “all those following the characters of God, will have a unfaltering mind”

Significance to the Siddhanta theology

Thirukkural now goes on further to elaborate what will be achieved by the soul that follows the teachings of the scriptures of God by controlling the five senses.

The control of the five senses through meditation is the only way the soul is to become supreme in nature. Here, the supreme is in the removal of karma mentioned and also seeing to that more karma (good or bad) is not added on to it. Thus the soul must also become neutral.

The soul can only become neutral by controlling the five senses and maintain it through out its life. If this is manageable, it will have ever lasting life. Everlasting life referred here means not to reincarnate again.

Thus for a soul not to reincarnate, its self consciousness, must be very clear. Many souls do put up a false impression of serenity to the outside world, but what ever the outside impression, its self consciousness is polluted.

Such a soul cannot be at peace with itself internally. A soul that is not peaceful will not be able to achieve success and elevation in its process of meditation.

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.

Chapter One - Verse five

The verse in the Tamil language

Erulsaer yeruvenaiyum seera eraivan
porulsaer pugazpurinthar maatu


In this verse, it explains the benefit an individual (soul) obtains by following the path of God. It also explains further characters of God.

Erulsaer
The word “irul” means darkness or more correctly emphasizes the darkness of ignorance. The “saer” means attachment or joining or enveloping. Thus the term is best translated as “enveloped in ignorance”.

Yeruvenaiyum
The the word “yeru” means double or both. “Venaiyum” means actions. Thus double / both actions means good and bad karma. Thus the word here means both good and bad karma.

Seera
The word “sera” means “will not attach”. The first sentence means “Ignorance, good and bad Karma will not attach and envelop an individual”

Eraivan
This means “God’

Porulsaer
The word “porul” has many meanings, but in this context, “Qualities” would be the most suitable. “saer” once again means attachment or joining or enveloping. Thus here it could mean “enveloping in God’s qualities”

Pugazpurinthar
“Pugaz” means to make good, to follow or becoming famous. In this context in means to follow and “purinthar” is one who understands. Thus the word “pugazpurinthar” can be translated as one who “understands and follows it”.

Maatu
This means “executing it” or putting it into action.

Thus the second sentence is to be translated as “One who understands God’s qualities and gets himself enveloped in it by following it and putting it into action”.

Thus the whole verse needs to be translated as “One who understands God’s qualities and set an example by putting it into action; ignorance, good and bad karma will not attach and envelope him”

In this verse, further qualities of God are subtly explained and how the soul will benefit if it understands and puts it into practice.

Significance to the Siddhanta theology

In this verse, it is informed that the ignorance surrounding the soul will be removed and in the process, karma will not envelop the soul. Here it is mentioned both good karma and bad karma. The purpose of the soul is not to do good karma, but to escape from reincarnation. For this, it needs to understand what is actually required to escape from reincarnation.

From verse one to verse five, a number of God’s qualities are provided and in this verse two more are provided. God does not have any ignorance and also He is nor affected or does not possess any from of karma.

Free from ignorance means God is aware of what is going around, thus the soul need not worry of its problems. And at the same time because God is neutral and unemotional (non interference) , God is also not going to interfere in the affairs of the soul.

The soul is in full control of every situation if it understands God’s qualities and is able to follow it by putting it to practice.

Thus the soul needs to be meditate (verse 3), understand God is unemotional and neutral (verse 4) and that God does not have any ignorance, thus will not interfere because God cannot be influenced by our prayers, sacrifice or rituals (verse 4) . Only by practicing neutral and unemotional actions, can we escape from sorrow and reincarnation.

Chapter One - Verse four

The verse in the Tamil language

Veenduthal veendamai elaanadi saertharikku
Yaandum edumbai yela

In this verse, the qualities of God, and the qualities an individual who meditates is explained. In the first verse, the supremacy of God is explained. The second verse explains the creation power of God and the third verse had explained what the soul needs to practice. This forth verse which provides the results of meditation is very simple and straight forward.

Veenduthal
This means “wishful wanting.”

Veendamai
This means “not rejecting”

Elaanadi
This is a two word phrase of “Ellan” meaning “No having” and “adi” meaning Lords feet. Thus the first sentence must be read as “Not having wishful wanting and not rejecting”. The other word “Adi” must be read with the next word / sentence.

Here, the quality of God of “not having wishful wanting and not rejecting” has very deep meanings. God as such, does not wish anything from anybody. This is one of the qualities of God in the Siddhanta concept, where God is “emotionless”. Similarly, “not rejecting” is explained by as God not excluding, selectively assisting or condemning any souls in entity. Thus God is portrait as a “neutral being”.

The verse also explains the condition of the souls that go into elevated meditation. The souls also become “unemotional and neutral” in their outlook.

Saertharikku
This word means “joining or following (the path)”. In this context, the meaning “following the path” is more fitting; and it must be read with the previous word “adi”. So this could mean “following the path of the Lord’s feet”.

Thus the first sentence can be explained as “Following the path of the emotionless and neutral God”

Now for the second sentence

Yaandum
This means “everything or anything”. This “anything” is in reference to physical, emotional and mental” objects.

Edumbai
This is a word used to describe anything unpleasant to the physical, emotional and mental well being. Thus it could be pain and sickness to the body, emotional fear or hatred of our emotion or mental worry or sorrow.

Yela
Means “not being attached or affected”

Thus the second sentence needs to be explained as “Not affected by anything unpleasant”.

Thus the whole sentence can be translated as “The one following the path of the emotionless and neutral God; is not affected by anything unpleasant”

Significance to the Siddhanta theology

God is One Who cannot be influenced by our prayers, offerings, and sacrifices and by any other means because God is both emotionless and neutral, not wanting anything from the souls and at the same tine not rejecting any sousl.

The souls by meditation (verse three) need to become also emotionless and neutral in its thoughts and actions. By doing this one escaped from all kinds of pain and sorrow and this is the path of spirituality. Only by following this path, one can obtain the grace of God.

The word”feet of God” is usually used as a reference to obtaining the grace of God.

Chapter One - Verse three

The verse in the Tamil language

Malarmisai aahinan maanadi saerthar
Nilamisai needuvaalz vaar


In this verse, the Kural informs of the soul what steps it needs to take in order to liberlise itself. The suggestion given is meditation.

Malarmisai
This is made up of two words, “malar and misai”. Malar means flower. Usually in the spiritual context, the flower is associated with a lotus, which in turn signifies the “chakras” in the human body. This in turn is linked with meditation.

Misai, has number of meanings, of which we will use the one associates with the flower, lotus, chakras and meditation. We will translate it as uplifting. The other meaning is connected with food thus not applicable here. Thus this word means uplifted meditation or well developed meditation.

Aahinan
“To put into practice” is the most suitable translation here. Thus both the phrases put together, one gets “well developed and practiced meditation”

Maanadi
This phrase has two words, of which “Ma” is used as speech of word to make adjectives into the superlative form. “Adi” means feet. Thus “maanadi” needs to be translated as the “feet of the Great One” which means God.

Saerthar
This word means “joining or linking”.

Thus the first sentence can be translated or explained as
“Well practiced meditation will link one (soul) with the feet of the Great One (God)”.

Now for the second sentence

Nilamisai
This has two words, “Nilam” and Misai”. Nilam means the land, thus here it denotes the livelihood on the earthly world. “Misai” as previously explained also means “uplifting”. However since it is connected with the earthly world, it means, the uplifting of ones lively hood in this world.

Needuvaalz Vaar
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. In Tamil, this word is also considered as a blessing.


Thus the second sentence means “Ones lively hood on this world will be up lifted with everlasting life”

Thus the whole sentence could mean in the following manner:-

“Well practiced meditation will link ones (soul) with the feet of the Great One (God) and ones livelihood on this world will be up lifted with everlasting life”.

Significance to the Siddhanta theology

The soul, on understanding that it is fully dependent on God for all matters, needs to take initiatives to lead a life most favorable or suitable to understand God.

For this, the only initial step is to move into the practice of meditation. This practice of meditation is useful not only for afterlife, but it will also streamline ones life on this earth and will provide blessings, uplift ones lively hood and provide ever lasting peace and recognition for an individual.

The benefits of meditation are not provided in this verse but it is gradually explained in the forth coming verses.

Chapter One - Verse two

The verse in the Tamil language

Katrathanal aaya payanankol valarivan

natrraal thoyaar aenin

The second verse is actually a continuation of the first verse, which describes the “smallness” of the soul in comparison with the “greatness” of God.

Katrathanal

This is a two word syllable, consisting of “Katrathal” and “Ana”.

“Katarthal” means the “process of leaning a skill”. In most books it is simple translated as “learning a book” but this word is more then mental learning, but involves in the “learning to make an object/a task” through the skills of learning. Thus this word can be used as, in the process of learning to making a clay pot or in the process of learning to weave a cloth. This a broad view.

The word “ana” means “because. Thus the whole word means “because of learning a skill”.

Aaya

This is a question mark of “what can you achive”?

Payanankol

Now this is a three word syllable, of Payan, Nan, & Kol. The word “payan” means benefit, nan meane one (you) and kol means understand. So the phrase means “what one (you) benefits”.

Thus the first sentence can be explained and translated as

“(Understand) What one (you) can achieve or benefit, by learning a skill”……… Here, the one or you, refers to the soul.

Now for the next sentence

Valarivan

This is a three word syllable, “Va” which is a prefix used to an adjective to make it a superlative. The other word “arivu” meaning wisdom becomes “the wisest” and the “an” means “the one”. The one here refers to God, so the whole word is explained as “the wisest God” or the “all knowing God”.

Natrraal

This is a two word syllabus, “Nat” and “Thal” Nat means goodness and “Thal” meaning “feet”. Here the feet refers to the “Lord’s feet and thus the phrase “the Lord’s holy feet”.

Thoyaar

Meaning “worshiper’” Here, in the Tamil language, the Tamil alphabet (a) in the word (Thoyaar) is not pounced. This is to denote a longer tone in pronouncing the word.

Anin

This word means “not”.

Thus the second sentence means “not worshiping the holy feet of the all knowing God”.

The whole verse is thus explained as “What can one achieve or benefit, by learning a skill if not worshiping the holy feet of the all knowing God”

Significance to the Siddhanta theology

The souls need to realize that it is only reflecting itself through God’s creation and what ever it learns or does, is only due to the presence of the world in which it has taken a birth. It cannot create anything on this earth, and all actions (for its survival and pleasure) is made possible only because of the presence of the substances said in the first verse, namely knowledge, life and matter. Thus the souls need to understand that however clever or skillful it becomes on this earth, it needs to be thankful to God for creating all theses substances, for it to achieve its greatness.

It is pointless for the soul to think it is great but instead to

remember the greatness of God, through its worship and actions.

Chapter One - Verse one

Ahara muthala yezut’thalaam aathi
Pahavan muthatrary ulagu
(Sorry unable to place the Tamil version here)

The Explanation

In expounding the first verse of the book, Thiruvalluvar has taken great pains to design it in such a way it explains the greatness of the Tamil language, the need for spirituality and the God concepts an individual needs to adhere to. This verse also cannot be adequately explained without the help of the Tamil book of grammar, the Tholkaappian. Most interpretations do not follow this system, but we have tried to look at it from this angle.

Ahara

The word “Ahara” is made up of two syllabus “A” and “haram”. This is a word very rarely used in any of the prose literature of the Tamil language. It is found only in books explaining the “grammarian systems” of the Tamil language. In this context, the Kural is one of the very rare instances where one finds this word “Aharam”, which is not a book on grammar.

This first word “Ahara” is only found only in one of the books of the Tamil literary world before the kural. This is in the Tamil grammar book of Tholkkapiam and many different verses are found in it. For our use, we will be selecting a few verses.

First, we will first refer to verses 203, 297, 298 and 310 of Tholkaapiam.

In all the above verses, only one meaning is provided for the joined syllabus “A” and “haram”. The syllable “haram” has a very distinct explanation, meaning “row”, while “A” demotes the section of the row.

Thus in verse 203, “Aharam” is explained as the “row of the alphabets starting from “A”. To reconfirm this explanation, one needs to look at the other following verses like 297 (Ukaram) 298 (Nakaram) 310 (MaKaram) and many other instances. All these mean “row of words” of the respective alphabets. There are very many such examples in Tholkkapium, but we are selecting only the simple verses.

Now there is a distinction between “written and sound producing” alphabets. This distinction is very unique to the arrangements of the Tamil alphabets in its language.

For this we look at the verses 55 to 57 of Tholkkapiam. Here it is clearly noted and explained that it means “sound” producing alphabets. Thus “Aharam” would mean “the row of words which start with the sound A”. Thus “Uharam” would mean “the row of words sounding U” and “Maharam” would mean “the row of words sounding Ma”.

Muthala
The second word in the sentence “muthala” means “pioneer”.
It can also mean the first one, the starting one or the initial one which all are synonyms.

Yezut’thalaam
The third word in the sentence is “yezut’thalaam”; which is made up of two separate words. “Yezithu” means written alphabets. An important note to this interpretation is that the word “Yezithu” is technically not used for spoken sound alphabets. It means written alphabets.

The other word is “Allam” is translated as “all”. Thus technically the word “yezut’thalaam” means “all written alphabets”. In this context of course it cannot be taken as to interpret any other languages except for the Tamil alphabets. This is an important context as “sol” means sounding alphabets while “yezuthu” means written alphabets

Hence in combining the second and third word in the kural, the most exact explanation should be “the pioneer of all the Tamil written alphabets”.

Now let us look what it means by “all the written Tamil alphabets”. Once again, only Tholkaapiam provides us the guide for this word. The opening verses of Tholkaapiam very clearly states that the Tamil alphabets are only 30.

The opening verse can be translated as follows.

“Written alphabets are
From the start of “Aharam”
To the end of “Naharam” 30 are reflected
Along with this structure comes 3 sound alphabets”

One needs to be very careful in translating and understanding the above meanings. In the Tamil language, the alphabets are written and pronounced exactly as how it is written. If one wants to alter the sound to a longer note, there are rules within the Tamil language of how one can do it. Thus Tamil is unique where the alphabets provide not only the sound but also the tonal length of the sound.

Of interest is the mention of 30 alphabets. It is later explained in the book that there are 12 vowels and 18 constants, thus making 30 alphabets. Thus a combination of these two (12 x 18) provides a total of 216 + 30 = 246 written alphabets.

Note: Many authors use the word "letters" instead of alphabet. This is wrong for each language has a different meaning for each "letter". In Chinses each letter is caked a character, because is carries a whole word. In Greek, a letter carries a whole concept example "alpha", while in English, many letters have been invented for symbols or signs. All these together are called letters, and not alphabets. Most important and what many people including many Tamils do not know is that Tamil have both separate "alphabets and letters". Letters are used to denote fractions and numbers and these cannot be termed as alphabets. Those who do not know Tamil tend to make this mistake.

247 Tamil alphabets
Now all of us know that the Tamil language has 247 written alphabets and not 246 written alphabets. Tholkaapian later goes on to explain the other single written alphabet, which is represented by three dots . Let us now look how these are named in the Tamil language.

Vowels are called as “Uyir” or Life while the constants are called “Mei” or True/Eternal. The Tamil words “Uyir and Mei” are very common words used in everyday language and it always means life and truth/eternal. Then, both the “Uyir and Mei” are joined to produce the “UyirMei” alphabets; which are 246 in number. The three dot alphabet is called “Aayutham”. In this literary context, it is to be explained as a “sound joining tool”.

Thus the Tamil alphabets are grouped as follows.

Aayutham - 1
Uyir - 12
Mei - 18
UyirMei - 216
Total 247 alphabets

Tamil is a very ancient language; one which is identified and accepted as a “classical language”. With such antiquity, specific words for “vowels” and “consonants” could have been coined, but the Tamils preferred to use the same word “life” which is used to also describe plant, animal and human life. Similarly the word “true/eternal” is used which also means wisdom, unwavering, unfaltering and so on. The term “sound joining tool” for the other alphabet, ayutham is also an interesting factor.

Thus the true explanation for the word ““yezut’thalaam” should mean - “Uyir” - “Mei – and “UyirMei” thus denoting all the 246 alphabets of the Tamil language, but leaving out the Aayutham as it is not included in the 30 alphabets or the derivatives of the 30 alphabets.

Now if we now place the first half sentence of the kural, a literal explanation/translation would be as follows:-

“Just like the row of alphabets with the sound A, being the pioneer of the
Uyir, Mei, and UyirMei, of the Tamil written alphabets….”

Now let us look at the second sentence

Aathi
The word “aathi” and “muthala” share the same meanings of “pioneer”, first one, the starting one or the initial one”. The only difference in the word “Aathi” is that a subtle meaning of “antiquity or ancient” added to it. Thus it would actually mean “the ancient pioneer”. This antiquity is usually used in reference to God. It needs to be mentioned here that this word also means our “solar sun”. Many have also used this meaning to explain this verse. We will however retain the meaning pioneer for this verse.

This is because, most of the Tamil literature where the antiquity of God is to be mentioned, the most common word used is “Aathi”.

Pahavan and the Pali Language
There is much debate if this word is a Tamil word or not. To go into this discussion, one needs to look at the language development of the Indian sub-continent of the era.

In Southern India, during the era when the Thirukkural was written, the languages of Kannada (Karnataka), Telengu (Andhra Pradesh) and Malaiyalam (Kerala) were not in existence. Tamil was the only written language for the whole of South India.

As for the Northern India, two major written scripts (not languages) were present. One was the Pali script and the other was the Sanskrit script. Technically there is no “Sanskrit” language as such. The Northern Indian Pali, was both a language and a script, while Sanskrit was only a script.

Over the years, the Pali writing was lost and absorbed into the Sanskrit script and eventually this became the so called “Sanskrit” language. Individually however, the different dialects started their own form of writing and many forms of “languages and writings” were formed. A similar evolvement also took place in the south of India. Finally, only the Vedic language retained the Sanskrit script, with much adulteration borrowed from the original Pali language.

Of interest to note is that Pali and Tamil languages initially used the same script with some minor differences. Tamil used the Tamil Grantha while Pali used the Pali Grantha. At times, Grantham is termed as the Brahmi script.


Pahavan
In view of this, it can be noted that many words were shared by both Pali and Tamil, as both were Dravidian languages. Thus at one era, there is a possibility that the word Pahavan was equally shared by Pali and Tamil.

Pahavan means God, and this cannot be a Vedic or Sanskrit word for in these languages, the word for God is Ishvara. This is the word (Ishvara) that is found in the Rig Vedas. The word Pahavan is not found in the Rig Vedas.

Muthatrary
The word “muthatray” has the same meaning with “muthala” but with difference in speech only. Thus it has similar meanings to “pioneer”, but as a verb, meaning initiator, architect, and planner and so on.

Ulagu
The word “ulagu” is a very common word and it has many meanings. In the context of the religion (or in relation to God) “ulagu” is usually referred to the souls. The other meaning of the word “ulagu” is “world”. For our interpretation, we will retain the meaning “souls”.

Ulagu and Religion
In the Tamil language the word “ulagu” has a much deeper meaning. In its true form “ulagu” is a non living element, thus “factually” it is wrong to use this word “ulagu” for a soul that has senses. Thus the word ulagu has another meaning which is a representation of a something that has “matter, life and mind”.

By this way, the souls are denoted as “ulagu” as they have “matter, life and mind”. We need to note that in the Tamil philosophy, only humans have “souls” while plants and animals do not have a soul. Thus here in Thirukkural, the word “ulagu” has to be interpreted as “matter, life and mind”.

Thus the second sentence means:- “the ancient pioneer God being the initiator of the matter, life and mind” (souls) . Now placing the whole sentence together, the first verse needs to be explained as such:-

“Just like the row of alphabets with the sound A, being the pioneer of the Uyir, Mei, and UyirMei, of the Tamil written alphabets so is the ancient pioneer God being the initiator of the “matter, life and mind” ( of the souls)”

Now there is final beauty in this verse. How come the sound “A” becomes the pioneer sound of all the 3 groups of the Tamil alphabets and what is its significance to the Tamil religious philosophy.

For this, let us look into the arrangement of the alphabets.
(Sorry - I am unable to place the Tamil alphabets yet - so wait till I learn how to place it in)

It can be seen from the above table that the Aayutham, which is not part of the initial 30 Tamil alphabets has the sound of the “first of the Uyir and the first of the Mei”. This is the ONLY alphabet that has this design in the Tamil alphabets thus having a separate name of itself.

Significance to the Siddhanta theology

The whole verse describes the relation of God with the soul in reference to the Tamil alphabets. God is outside the natural phenomenon, thus it is not represented within the Tamil alphabets, but the soul is linked with the three matters of this world, namely knowledge, life and matter.

The soul is represented by the Aayutham (with the three dots) thus is not officially within the 30 alphabets of the Tamil language, but it is the one which binds the three matters, namely the knowledge (Mei), the life (Yuir) and the UyirMei (Matter) for us to tangibly see the world.

But all these are created by God and the soul depends on all the three and yet is not part of the three. Just like the Aayutham, it is not part of the alphabets, but it is the source from which the alphabets appear to be seen. Thus God is the source of all the creation, just as how the soul reflects all the alphabets.

The soul is nothing without God, for it cannot even reflect upon itself
without this world, which is a creation of God.