Pasuram 1.1.9

Tamil text and transliteration:

உளன் எனில் உளன் அவன் உருவம் இவ் உருவுகள்
உளன் அலன் எனில், அவன் அருவம் இவ் அருவுகள்
உளன் என இலன் என இவை குணம் உடைமையில்
உளன் இரு தகைமையொடு ஒழிவு இலன் பரந்தே.

uḷaṉ eṉil uḷaṉ avaṉ uruvam iv uruvukaḷ
uḷaṉ alaṉ eṉil, avaṉ aruvam iv aruvukaḷ
uḷaṉ eṉa ilaṉ eṉa ivai kuṇam uṭaimaiyil
uḷaṉ iru takaimaiyoṭu oḻivu ilaṉ parantē.

English translation of verse 1.1.9:

Be it said (as the theists say), “He is,” or (as the atheists say) “He is not”, (both ways) His existence is established. He exists, at all times and in all places together with the aggregate of the formless sentient beings and the non-sentient things with shape and size, both in the gross state (embodied and therefore visible) and in the subtle state (disembodied and therefore objectively imperceptible).

Notes

(i) The theists (Vaidikas) are those; who subscribe to the authority of the Vēdas;

(ii) The atheists (Nāstikas) are those who deny the existence of God. Denial can and ought to be only with respect to a thing, which forms the subject of such denial. That thing should be there, at least notionally, as ‘nothing’, as such, does not warrant denial, rather needs no denial. Thus, this stanza cuts across the exponents of ‘Śunya Vāda’ or the doctrine of nothingness. The Upaniṣadic text ‘asat vā idamagra āsīth’ refers to the invisible subtle state (too subtle to be visible), when this world which forms Brahman’s body was gradually reabsorbed into Brahman, each constituent element being refunded into its immediate cause. The word ‘asat’ italicized in the text, does not connote a state of nothingness or non-existence but the ‘subtle’ state as distinguished from the gross or visible, manifest state.