34. What is a temple what is sacred pond?

Verse 34

கோயிலாவது ஏதடா குளங்களாவது ஏதடா

கோயிலும் குளங்களும் கும்பிடும் குலாமரே

கோயிலும் மனத்துளே குளங்களும் மனத்துளே

ஆவதும் அழிவதும் இல்லைஇல்லை இல்லையே!

Translation:

Temples- what are they, tanks- what are they,

Ye fools who worship temples and tanks!

Temple and tanks are within the heart

Creation and destruction, never, never, never at all.

Commentary:

In the previous verse, Civavakkiyar deplored mindless worship rituals. Here he is banishing mindless visits to temples and sacred water bodies.  He says that the temple and the sacred tank exist within the mind.

The place where the Lord resides is the temple.  ‘koil= ko+il’,  the residence of the Lord, is the heart as the Divine is immanent.  The antaryami form or the divine as the indweller is the supreme form of the Lord as in that form he functions as a witness and a guide- a guru within.  Such a location of the Lord is beyond creation and destruction unlike the material temples and tanks.  To the Tamil Siddhas the real temple and real thirtha (as thresholds of religious experience) are not outside but inside the individual.  Refer also Karuvurar Puja Vidhi verse 10.