TIRU KURAL-DHARMIC SECTION-CHAPTER 1-OBEISANCE TO GOD

[Guest guest]

verse 6:

"porri vaayil ainthavitthan poi theer ozhukka

nerri nindraar needu vaazhvaar." (in Tamil)

meaning,

Those who do not swerve from the true ethical path ordained by God

shall live for ever in the heavens without fear of being born again

on earth.

annotation:

It is easy to get confused by religious and spiritual

pronouncements.When some one speaks of the Word of God or God-given

Ethics, many would be unable to understand a particular word or rule

coming directly from the mouth of God as according to them no-one has

seen God or His or Her shape or size or color and so on.Without

getting into arguments, it is not untenable , though somewhat naive,

to point to certain eternally valid ethical code of conduct that

appears to every one of us according to our conscience as one to be

followed without fail.In the mechanical age, people believe they have

no time to even refer to their conscience .Such being the case, one

ought to remind oneself of the ethical sayings one was asked to

memorize in the vernacular during one's childhood.For instance, many

statements of moral law pronounced by persons of the caliber of

Avvaiyar(in Tamilnad) can be cited in point.....arram cheya virumbu,

meaning desire to do charity, aarrvathu chinam, meaning anger is to

be abated... aalayam thozhuvathu chaalavum nandru, meaning

worshipping at a temple is really a good practice to be cultivated

and so on.

Once moral laws are followed , there will be no sin committed and

sin is known to be nothing but moral transgression.When we don't

sin , it is easy to cross the samsara sagara and to be free from the

cycle of rebirths.

According to Tiruvalluvar, when we worship God, we begin to be aware

of an inner voice that starts prompting us every now and then and

gives warnings many a time.This inner voice is nothing but the

conscience each of us possesses, but some wear on their sleeves!It

will be seen that the warnings of conscience have also been taught as

moral laws.Look at the benefits of worship of God.

Tirvalluvar wants all to practice these moral laws that become self-

evident to us from our conscience once we start worshipping God.It is

so clever of him to refer to the knowledge that comes to us of

ethical conduct that results from worship of God in this Chapter

ostensibly devoted to Worship of God.

See how ethics and religion are intertwined.