33. Pouring spittle of the bee on a broken stone

Verse 33

மாறுபட்ட மணிதுலக்கி வண்டின் எச்சில் கொண்டுபோய்

ஊறுபட்ட கல்லின்மீதே ஊற்றுகின்ற மூடரே

மாறுபட்ட தேவரும் அறிந்து நோக்கும் என்னையும்

கூறுபட்டு தீர்க்கவோ குருக்கள்பாதம் வைத்ததே

                                             

Translation:

Cleaning the bell, taking the oral secretion from bees                                                  

Ye stupid people who pour it over broken stone!

The Lord is different, see it with knowledge. Did he place me also

At the feet of the Guru to examine and realize (Him)?

Commentary:

God is not a stone form. Civavākkiyar reprimands people for making a big show of rituals such as washing the stone form of God with various products like honey, ringing the bell and adorning it with flowers.  He says the Divine is different from the stone form and advises people to know this and realize God in his true form.  He wonders whether this is the reason for the Lord placing him also at the feet of a preceptor, as can raise his doubts with the guru and get clarity.  A guru is God in human form, one to whom the disciple can raise all his doubts, clear them and obtain true knowledge.  This is the only means for God realization, not empty rituals such as sacred ablution of the stone form.

Civavākkiyar, in his fervor, calls God’s image carved in stone as a ‘broken piece of stone, a stone that was harmed’.  He calls honey as ‘spit of bees’.  This verse stands as an example of how the Siddhas called a spade a spade.  There are no pretenses or false glorification.