Tirukkural .. part 2

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TIRUKKURAL .. Part 2

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Let us continue with Reading TIRUKKURAL written by Tiruvalluvar. This one also a Treasure to Sanathana Dharma Same like Neetisara ,Arthasastra and Viduraniti. If anyone miss to read or interest to read Neetisara , Arthasastra and Vidura niti pls mail to me , I will send again to you.

Tirukkural Part 2

About Saint Tiruvalluvar

Tiruvalluvar was a saint who lived in Tamil Nadu over two thousand years ago. Very little is known of him. He lived in Mylapore, which today is a part of the city of Chennai (Madras). Many stories have been written about his greatness. However, most scholars today find it rather difficult to sift out fact from fiction.

Tiruvalluvar was married to Vasuki, who was a chaste and pious woman. She was an ideal housewife. Soon after they married, Valluvar was one day seated at his supper table and about to start his meal, when he said: "My dear Vasuki, kindly place alongside my supper a tiny bowl of water, as well as a toothpick. Will you please do this every day?"

Vasuki dutifully obeyed, asking no questions. Every day, without fail, she would place this tiny bowl of water and a toothpick alongside her husband¢s supper. But strangely, Valluvar seemed to have no use for either! Years went by, but neither the water nor the toothpick was used. Yet, Vasuki did not waver in her duty even once.

It was only on his deathbed that Valluvar, perceiving a troubled look on her face asked, "What is troubling you, dear Vasuki? Please tell me."

Vasuki said: "My dear lord, for many years now, I have pondered as to the reason behind my lord¢s strange request that a toothpick accompanied by a little water be placed on your supper table. I am troubled that the secret may be buried along with my revered lord and husband.""

Valluvar smiled and said gently: "Dear Vasuki, you are a devoted wife and have served me very well all these years. Kindly forgive me for not explaining to you earlier the reason for my request to you. You see, if a grain of rice or a morsel of food accidentally fell onto the table while I was eating, it would be a great sin to let such food go to waste. With the toothpick available, I could easily pick up the fallen food, rinse it in the water you so kindly provided, and eat it thereafter. Food would thus not go wasted."

Is it not marvellous that the famous poet dropped not even a grain of rice in all the years that he was married to Vasuki! We too, can practise and master the art of eating correctly, if we put our mind to it. This delightful story tells us what kind of a person Tiruvalluvar was.

Also study the spirit of perfect obedience in the devoted Vasuki. If aspirants can have such unquestioning obedience to their Guru, they would soon crush the ego, which is the root of all pain and suffering. You too, should try hard to obey your teachers and parents at every opportunity. This is the key to success and happiness.

Valluvar was a philosopher, that is, a man of great wisdom. He gave the world a most wonderful gift in the form of the Tirukkural.

The great scholar and statesman, Sri Rajagopalachari said: "Tiruvalluvar was one of those rare and great men whose catholic spirit rose above all kinds of castes and creeds, and whose vision was not clouded by dogma or prejudice of any kind".

The saintly Tiruvalluvar and his devoted wife Vasuki have been held as perfect ideals of the Hindu household life ever since they left this earth.___________

Readings from the Kural

KuralThe Great Book of Tiru-ValluvarSelections from Book I & IITranslation and notesby Sri Chakravarti. Rajagopalachari

First Book of Kural

Dharma

There is no great wealth one can acquire than Dharma and no misfortune greater than the forgetting of it

Forgetting Dharma is failing to perform one¢s duties according to Dharma.

[Note: Aram is the Tamil equivalent of the Sanskrit word Dharma, for which there is no single word- equivalent in English. Duty, virtue and other such words do not really cover the full import of either Aram or Dharma.]

Go as far as your strength and resources permit without swerving from the path of Dharma.

[Note: This is Tiru-Valluvar¢s characteristic way of bringing everything down to the level of practicability without losing hold of the ideal.]

Keep the mind from evil thoughts. This is the whole of Dharma. The rest is only of the nature of sound and show.

The key to purity of action is purity of thought. The attainment of a mind free from evil thoughts is the aim of a religious life, and this is a silent process. External observances are sound and show.

[Note: The Tamil word Aakulam is sound and show.]

True religious life consists in the avoidance of four things: envy, the craving for pleasure, anger and harsh speech.

Do not say to yourself ¡Let me see about it later when I shall be better fitted.¢ Live the true religious life now. It will be the one unfailing support when all else will disappear and become of no use.

Only the joy that comes from right conduct is true happiness. Other pleasures are really sources of pain and causes of shame.

Pleasure will soon become shame and pain, if the act that procured it was unrighteous. Right conduct is therefore not only right but also wise.

The Good Householder

The householder so-called helps the other orders in the proper fulfillment of their duties.

The unmarried student, he gives up active life and goes to the jungle, and the Sannyasin, can carry on as such, only because some others live as good householders. The householders therefore should not be looked upon as selfishly living for pleasures while the others are leading lives of abstinence. The householder works for the others who renounce work.

Love and right conduct give to the householder¢s life its true character and purposefulness.

Family life is beautiful and purposeful only if it is marked by love and Dharma. Love makes it beautiful and Dharma is fulfillment of its purpose.

If a man goes through the householder¢s life along the way of Dharma, nothing is left for him to attain by becoming a recluse or going to the forest.

Of all classes of aspirants to Dharma, the householder who lives up to the standard is the most estimable.

There is more penance in the life of a householder who does what should be done and avoids any lapse from Dharma, than in the privations of hermits.

He, who leads his life in this world, as he should, ranks with the gods in heaven.

The Life Partner

She is a true-life companion who proves equal to the tasks of a householder¢s life, adjusting herself to the breadwinner¢s resources.

It is essential for happiness in family life that culturally and economically the wife should fall into line with the family of her adoption. The partnership will not work otherwise.

There is no true family life where the wife has not the qualities required for helping in the fulfillment of the duties of a good householder. If the mistress of the house has not these qualities, neither wealth nor other circumstances can be of any avail.

The husband¢s virtues cannot make up for it.

If the mistress of the house possesses the qualities of a true-life partner, nothing will be wanting. If the mistress of the house does not have those qualities, naught will avail.

What possession of greater value can one have than a wife, if she be firm in her loyalty to her partner in life?

[Note: Karppu is not mere physical chastity. It is unqualified loyalty to husband.]

The true wife thinks not of God when she rises in the morning. She offers her worship to the husband and that is enough. Even the clouds will obey and pour the rain at her command.

[Note: The Vedanta philosophy and Hindu practice recognize forms of worship, which enable the devotee to see the supreme Deity in every object of love or adoration. Husband-worship is not a neglect of God.]

Of what use is that purity which is brought about by physical restrictions and isolation to which women are subjected? Their own senses of a pure life is the best watch.

Children

Of all things one may be blessed with, we can think of nothing equal to the joy of having begot children who have grown up to true enlightenment.

Far sweeter than heavenly ambrosia is the porridge in which one¢s child has dabbled with its little hand.

They speak of the sweet tones of the flute and of the harp, who have not had children and heard them lisp their newly learnt words.

The best inheritance that a father can provide for his son is an education that will fit him to take an honoured place among cultured men.

In bringing up sons, fathers should remember that not wealth but education conduces most to their happiness.

Hearing words of appreciation uttered by people about her son, the mother feels greater joy than what she felt on the day he was born.

The son¢s greatest filial service is so to conduct himself as to make men say in wonderment ¡Great must have been the father¢s good deeds to be blessed with such a noble son¢.

A Loving Disposition

Those who have not the loving disposition, belong wholly to themselves. The tenderhearted belong to others even in their bones.

The love in their hearts makes them possession of the living world outside of them.

The enlightened hold that the saving joy of the soul when burdened with the body is the experience of human affection.

Human affection is possible only if the soul is clothed in flesh and blood, and it is worthwhile for the sake of the experience of such affection to suffer the miseries of life on earth. The soul would like to be born in flesh and blood for the sake of enjoying this incident of life on earth.

Affection is a training for bhakti (devotion), and out of bhakti will come unsought, true enlightenment, the goal of all religious endeavour.

Strewn with pleasure is the way to heaven, for it can be attained by well ordered family life.

This is contrasted by implication to the toilsome path of celibacy and penance.

Men of imperfect understanding think that a tender heart helps one only in the path of good morality. Love inspires the warlike deeds of the brave soldiers too.

[Note: It is well known that the bravest warrior is often the most tender hearted. Parimelazhagar¢s interpretation of this Kural is different. ¡Maram¢ in his commentary is the contrary of ¡Aram¢ (Dharma) and he explains the verse to mean that love overcomes wrath and enmity, and helps a man not only himself to do the right, but also to overcome the wrong done by others. ¡Maram¢ in Tamil literature also has another meaning besides the one Parimelazhagar has explained. ¡Maram¢ stands for the virtues of the soldier (see Kural Ch. 39-4), and I think that is the sense in which the word is used in this

verse.]

Inflexible law withers the soul of him that has no love in his heart, even as the sun shrivels up the bodies of boneless worms.

As the spine supports the bodies of vertebrates, love supports the soul. Without it, it shrinks and stops the spirit¢s evolution.

Where there is no tenderness of heart, life is barren of purpose. Can a tree that is dried up in the desert sun put forth leaves?

Without a tender heart, of what avail are the externals of family life? Just as the outer ear or eye may be there, but it is of no avail to the deaf and the blind, so is the soulless routine of a householder¢s life purposeless without tenderness of heart.

Without tenderness of heart, the body is but bones covered up with skin. In love alone is the secret of life.

Life functions really in love and not in the physical activities of the body.

An Open House

The only justification for a man to remain in family life and for acquiring and keeping property (without becoming a Sannyasin) is that he may command the means by which help may be given to those who seek help.

Family life is not a right but a duty arising out of the obligations of the individual to society.

To seat for a meal by oneself, keeping out those who come expecting hospitality, is a thing to be abhorred even if the food were the elixir of immortality.

The goddess of prosperity will be gladdened in heart and linger in the house of the man whose smiling face welcomes those who seek hospitality.

Must he indeed sow seeds in his field, who eats what remains after feeding the guests?

The gods will look after the affairs of the man who feeds his guest before sitting down himself to eat. Hospitality is itself seed enough for his fields and the crops will rise.

"What have we gained spending all our lives in toil and care? Nothing avails now. There is nothing to lean upon." Thus on their last day will lament those who have failed to perform the sacrifice of hospitality and look after those who come for help.

Hospitality is equivalent to a religious sacrifice.

How stupid those misers are who fail to practise the law of hospitality! They succeed in being poor in the midst of plenty.

The delicate flower withers away if you take it to the nose to inhale its fragrance. But the guest who comes for a meal will shrink even at a distant look that indicates unwillingness to receive.

We should treat poor guests more delicately than the most delicate flower.

The Soft Word

The speech of enlightened men consists of truth soaked in affection.

Gentleness of speech is not pleasant falsehood, but the truth that is spoken by men who know the whole of the law and are not misled by dry dogmas, who are full of affection for the person to whom the truth is addressed, and therefore find the words that save truth from harshness.

The kindly word and the glad and loving look accompanying a gift are appreciated even more than the gift itself.

To give is good. But the sweet manner accompanying the gift touches the heart of the receiver even more than the good gift itself.

The relief of distress consists in the glad face, the welcome look and speech that is marked by genuine consideration for the feelings of the man who is in distress.

The gift that is thrown at the distressed without these accompaniments does not really relieve suffering but hurts.

One need not fear poverty if he has gladdened the hearts of men by kind words.

The world will not leave such a man to suffer by reason of adversity.

Not jewels but courteous deportment and gladness of speech are the things that adorn.

Truly it is strange that people speak harsh words, when they have themselves felt and experienced the joy that kindly speech begets.

Every moment we have direct personal experience of the marvellous effect of kind words from others and yet, when we speak, we forget it and indulge in harsh speech.

[Note: The Kural technique of carrying conviction can be seen in this.]

When gentle words are available, why do men choose the words that hurt? Is it not foolish to pick unripe berries when ripe ones can be had for the plucking?

Gratitude

The good deed that is done not in return, but in the first instance, is more precious than anything is in this world or beyond. Nothing can repay that act.

What is done in return for something previously done can never be as great as the deed born out of sheer generosity, be it ever so small by itself. There is therefore nothing that can be considered an adequate repayment. It is above every other kind of goodness.

By itself the help rendered may be a trifle, but the hour of need when it was given makes it bigger than the whole world.

It is bad to forget a favour done to you. But if someone does you a wrong, it is good to forget it that very day.

Painful like death itself may be the evil that you suffer at a man¢s hand. But remind yourself of some good thing that he once did for you. It will help you to forget the present pain.

[Note: This is another fine instance of Tiru-Valluvar¢s characteristic way of giving helpful practical hints to follow what may seem to be a mere counsel of perfection, showing what a great master of psychology Valluvar was.]

Rectitude

The acquisition of a man of rectitude goes down to his children without diminution and will protect them against adversity.

[Note: This is not a mere superstition invoked for supporting the moral rule. There is practical wisdom in the statement as to the stability of well-earned wealth and the instability of acquisitions got by methods that society condemns. Rectitude of means employed gives stability to what is acquired, whereas what is got by swerving from the straight path stands ever in danger of being lost again or serving as a snare. The most powerful motive for the householder is the desire to see that his children are assured of happiness after him. Upright conduct, says Tiru-Valluvar, ensures this.]

It may seem that no evil attaches to the acquisition that comes by swerving from the path of rectitude. But do not be tempted. Give up the thought at once.

Who lived a life of rectitude and who did not can be seen from how the children they have left behind fare.

[Note: Your life will impress itself on your child¢s character, and if you wish well for your child beware and walk in the path of rectitude, says the poet.]

The swerving of your mind can be perceived by you before anyone else sees it. Look upon it as an evil portent and beware.

If the man who walks firmly in the path of rectitude thereby loses his worldly possessions, his poverty does not lower him in the estimation of the world. He retains his status in society as if nothing had happened to him.

Let businessmen know that it is good business to protect the interests of others exactly as they do their own.

[Note: This is the Kural version of the formula that honesty is the best policy. Rectitude is not only Dharma but good economic policy also.]

Self-Control

Note: Self-control is as necessary a virtue for the householder as for the recluse. ¡Adakkam¢ in Tamil may mean either self-control or humility. Self-control, guarding against cupidity, pride and anger, is what is dealt with here.]

Self-control takes one to the gods. Want of it will push one into utter darkness.

There is no possession more precious than self-control. Watch yourself therefore as you would watch treasure.

It is well for everyone to be meek, but for those who have wealth meekness is added possession.

[Note: Learning, good birth, and wealth are not reduced but enhanced by a becoming humility of deportment. The word used here for humility of deportment is ¡Panidal¢ which literally means ¡bowing to show respect¢.]

If a man lives a life of self-control and withdraws the five senses from tempting pleasures as a tortoise , upon sensing danger, draws its head and limbs into its shell, he shall have insured himself against evil in seven births thereafter.

You may neglect everything else, but be ever vigilant in restraining your tongue. Those who fail to do so meet with great trouble.

[Note: Not that in other things one may relax control; but the danger of careless or angry speech is constantly present, and requires special attention.]

The injury caused by a burn heals, but the pain caused by the thoughtless word is never forgotten by the man who is hurt. It remains forever in his mind like an ugly scar.

If a man knows how to control the rising anger in his mind and guards himself against losing his temper, all other virtues will seek him out and wait on his pleasure.

The Regulated Life

Discipline of life is more precious than life itself, for it is out of that discipline that life derives value.

One may study many philosophies and clear his doubts but it is the well-regulated life that ultimately avails and nothing else. Therefore, guard it whatever may be the difficulty involved.

The well-regulated life ennobles every rank of life. Where this fails, good or noble parentage will not save the man.

The Brahmin can study again what he has forgotten of the scriptures and make up for lost memory. But if he neglects regulation of life he forfeits forever the advantage of his birth.

A well-regulated life brings honour. Neglect of it will lead to utter disgrace.

The learned really betray ignorance when in spite of their learning they fail to regulate their lives in accordance with the principle of social cooperation.

[Note: Learning is worthless if one cannot exercise self-control in conduct and behaviour. Regulation of life and social cooperation are more important than scriptural or philosophical knowledge.]

Unlawful Love

It is stupidity to entertain amorous thoughts about one who belongs to another. Any one that knows either the way of Dharma or that of worldly wisdom will avoid this folly.

Among those who stray from the path of right conduct, there is none so stupid as the man who trespasses into another man¢s home.

It is better for one to be dead than to be tempted by thoughts of sin where one has been received with trust.

Of no avail will be a man¢s importance, however great it may be, if he is thoughtless and lacks the simple wisdom of not violating another¢s home.

It may seem all too easy to err with another¢s wife, but the disgrace will be irredeemable for all time.

Enmity, Sin, Fear and Disgrace will always dog the path of the man who violates the sacredness of another¢s home.

He is not a true householder who lets his amorous thoughts dwell on those who belong to others. He may in conduct be a good husband and a good father and everything else, but the impure thought is enough to make it all unreal.

Manhood consists in being able to control one¢s mind and being proof against amorous thoughts towards one that belongs to another. It is good religion as well as social order.

With Pranam

Will continue on part 3

with regards

dilip