Pasuram 2.5.10

Tamil text and transliteration:

ஆண் அல்லன் பெண் அல்லன் அல்லா அலியும் அல்லன்,
காணலும் ஆகான் உளன் அல்லன் இல்லை அல்லன்,
பேணுங்கால் பேணும் உரு ஆகும் அல்லனும் ஆம்,
கோணை பெரிது உடைத்து எம் பெம்மானைக் கூறுதலே.

āṇ allaṉ peṇ allaṉ allā aliyum allaṉ,
kāṇalum ākāṉ uḷaṉ allaṉ illai allaṉ,
pēṇuṅkāl pēṇum uru ākum allaṉum ām,
kōṇai peritu uṭaittu em pemmāṉaik kūṟutalē.

English translation of verse 2.5.10:

‘Tis indeed very difficult to sing precisely, my Lord’s glory
Neither male nor female is He nor the eunuch neutral,
He exists not, nor does He not exist;
Him the naked eye can’t see and yet He assumes
The form the devout desire while unto others He is just inaccessible.

Note

In Ṛg Veda, ‘Āraṇyaka’, the Lord is said, to be quite apart, that is, different from the rest. Therefore it is, the Āḻvār says that He is neither male nor female, nor the ‘in-between’. A Tamil Pundit, who was listening to Śrī Parāśara Bhaṭṭar’s discourse on this song, observed that it smacked of the doctrine of nothingness (Śūnya), as the Lord could not be brought under any of the three known categories of beings. But the learned discourser pointed out that, in this song, the Lord has not been referred to, in the neuter gender but described only in the masculine gender, as a male, who is, however, very different from other males and hence not the male, we know of.