5. Beautiful body. After death?....

Verse 5

வடிவுகண்டு கொண்டபெண்ணை மற்றொருவன் நத்தினால்

விடுவனோ அவனைமுன்னம் வெட்டவேணும் என்பனே

நடுவன்வந்து அழைத்தபோது நாறும் இந்த நல்லுடல்

சுடலைமட்டும் கொண்டுபோய்த் தோட்டிக்கைக் கொடுப்பரே.

Translation:

When someone hankers after the girl of one’s desire

Will one spare him? No. One will say, “He should be axed first”

However, when the God of Death comes calling, this beautiful body will stink,

Taking it up to the funeral pyre, one will gladly hand it over to the cremator of corpses.

Commentary:

           

            This verse explains the ephemeral nature of the body.  A body looks beautiful and attractive while the soul resides in it.  The moment the God of Death, Yama, comes calling upon the soul, the same fragrant and enchanting body (which now lacks the soul) starts to smell.  A lover who was so enamored by that beautiful body that he was ready to kill another seeking it, will happily take it up to the funeral pyre and hand it over to the scavenger to get rid of it.

            According to the Siddhas, the human body (sthula śarīra) can he transmuted into a divine body, the divya deha by the method of kundalini yoga.  However, people, not knowing the method of doing it simply treat this body as an object of pleasure and hand it over finally to the Lord of Death and to the servant at the burning ghāt to burn and destroy it.

            Siddhas usually classify bodies as of two types- the “ripe” or pakva or matured body and that which is “unripe” or apakva (refer Yoga Bija verses 34-35 and 48-53).  The unripe body is one not disciplined by yoga; it is a mere material body, sthula śarīra.  When it is disciplined by yoga, the body becomes ripe or pakva. Pambatticittar says that he will put this filthy (unripe) body into the fire (of yoga) and make it hard.  The term he uses is pudam in Tamil, which is the equivalent of making one pakva (Pambatti cittar verse 128).  Idaikkattu Cittar rejoices that he has ‘roasted’ and made the five senses (five goats) dance at his will by driving them into ‘yoga veḷi’ the space of yoga (Idaikkatu cittar verse 27).  Tirumular uses a similar expression ‘for those experts who can heat (by fire) the body and harden it’ (naṉṛākak kāyccip padam veya vallārkaṭku) (mandiram 2432).