Verse 1

1. One is many

The One is He, the Two His sweet Grace,

In Three He stood, in all the Four witnessed,

The Five He conquered, the Six He filled,

The Seven Worlds pervades, manifests the Eight,

And so remains.

Possible interpretations of the numbers:

The One – The Eternal Being-

The Two – Siva/Sakti.

The Three – Triads are many: Primal Sakti evolves into three subsidiary Saktis: Iccha (desire), Jnana (knowledge) and Kriya (action);

the three Gods – Brahma or Aya (of creation), Vishnu or Mal (of preservation) and Siva or Rudra (of dissolution);

the three primal gunas-Rajas, Tamas and Sattvas;

the entire creation represented by the three genders, he, she and it;

The Four – the four Vedas: Rk. Yajus, Sarna, AtluJrvana;

the four steps to God¬ realization: Charya and Kriya, Yoga and Jnana.

The Five – the five senses;

the five acts: creation, preservation, dissolution, obfuscation and liberation.

The Six – the six schools of philosophy; the six Adhvas or steps to final realization: padam (sound), ez.huthu (letter), mantram (syllable), kalai (light), tattvam (principles of matter), and bhuvanam (world);

refers to 6 chakras: muladhara, svadhisthana, manipuraka, anahata, visuddhi, ajna.

The Seven – the seventh chakra, sahasrara, located above the cranium.

The Eight – pervasiveness through earth, water, fire, air, sky, sun, moon and Jiva (living being)

One possible translation with interpretation:

The One is He, the Two His sweet Grace, (He is the Eternal Being, Siva and Shakti His sweet Grace)

In Three He stood, in all the Four witnessed, (He stood in Right Desire, Knowledge and Action; The 4 steps to God witnessed)

The Five He conquered, the Six He filled, (He conquered Creation, Preservation, Dissolution, Obfuscation and Liberation; He filled six chakras)

The Seven Worlds pervades, manifests the Eight (Sahasrara pervades, Manifests the pervasiveness through earth, water, fire, air, sky, moon and Jiva)

And so remains.

Learn more about our Thirumoolar’s Yoga Teacher Training Courses.

————You could easily build an entire class theme around this. Stay tuned for Verse 2 next…

Thanks and Namaste, Mary