25. Man and woman

Verse 25

அண்ணலே அநாதியே அநாதிமுன் அநாதியே

பெண்ணும் ஆணும் ஒன்றலோ பிறப்பதற்கு முன்னெல்லாம்

கண்ணில் ஆணின் சுக்கிலம் கருதிஓங்கும் நாளிலே

மண்ணுளோரும் விண்ணுளோரும் வந்தவாறு எங்ஙனே?

Translation:

Lord!  The eternal one, the eternal before the eternal,

Woman and man, were they not the same before birth?

At the time when the blind semen of the man increases willingly,

How did the earthlings/those with earth and heavenly beings/those with space, come about?

Commentary: 

This verse refers to the birth of living beings, especially the humans.  At the time of conception, when the semen enters the ovum for fertilization, there is no distinction as man and woman. Distinction comes about only after the fertilized ovum develops into a fetus.  Civavākkiyar asks how this gender distinction came about and calls it a wonder.

Traditionally the term maṇṇuḷōr means earthlings and viṇṇuḷōr means celestials.  In this verse it means a woman, the one with the soil for sowing the seed, the sperm and the man, the one who has the space that enters the earth, the woman.

Civavākkiyar calls the semen blind. The semen does not know where the egg cell is when it tries to fertilize it. Neither does it know why it has to fertilize an egg.  Millions of them travel towards the egg as if they are blind.  Tirumular explains this wonder in detail in section 14 of Tandiram two of the Tirumandiram.  The Siddha’s insight in this matter is amazing.