From http://indianheartbeat.20m.com/PgThirukural.html
August 23, 2001
The Thirukkural
by Thiru A Kathirasen
The Thirukkural is a gift of God to mankind. Written by the Sage Thiruvalluvar, the Thirukkural is in the form of couplets that convey noble thoughts.
Indian sages have worked out four great aims in life. The Thirukkural deals with three of the four great aims in life - Aram, porul, and inbam. The fourth great aim in life and the culmination of all the previous three is Veedu. Veedu means consciously returning back to our source. It is Sivagati. It is mukti.
Thiruvalluvar does not deal with the fourth aim in life in his Thirukkural. Some say this is because if you follow the first three perfectly, veedu will be automatically achieved.
The Thirukkural is a code of ethics. It has something noble for the ordinary man, the administrator, the king, and the ascetic. It is global in perspective and it is as timely today as when it was written more than 2000 years ago. It deals with the power of virtue, extols self-control, urges man to perform sacrifice and charity, elucidates the qualities that go to make perfection in all people - the married and the ascetic.
The Thirukkural consists of 133 chapters with each containing 10 couplets composed in the kural-venba metre. Divided into three sections, the first part called arattupaal in 38 chapters enumerates the ways to live a morally upright life; touching on such things as the happy married life and the greatness of those who renounce.
The second part, called porutpaal tackles the conduct of those involved in the administration and socio-political life; about social relations and citizenship.
The third part, inbatupaal, deals with love; about physical longing, about true love and ethics.
The Thirukkural has achieved a perfect balance between the secular and the spiritual.
Although we can say much about the book, we cannot do the same about the author. Very little is known about Thiruvalluvar and his life.
Indian sages have this unique quality of making themselves unimportant and wishing only for their works to be known and useful. They shy away from talking about themselves. This is one reason why there is little information about many of our sages. They held the belief that their message was more important than themselves. Thiruvalluvar was one of these noble souls.
Thiruvalluvar's parent's names are not conclusively known. However, his wife's name is given as Vasugi. She is described as the embodiment of chastity with many stories about her purity being often quoted even today.
The Thirukkural can lead to a happy, contented, morally upright, and peaceful life. It can lead to harmonious and peaceful social relations and co-existence.
The Thirukkural is one of the oldest extant Tamil books. Written by Thiruvalluvar around the first century BC, this moral code is not confined to any creed or denomination and is universal in every sense of the word.
Thiruvalluvar has offered words of wisdom on many inverse human subjects but mostly centering on the principles of conduct that should guide all persons irrespective of race or religion.
Below are a few random selections. The translation from Tamil is by the renowned scholar and statesman, the late C. Rajagopalachari.
- There is no greater wealth one can acquire than harm (righteousness or virtue) and no misfortune greater than the forgetting of it.
- Keep your mind free from evil thoughts. This is the hole of Dharma. The rest is only of the nature of sound and show.
- True religious life consists in the avoidance of four things:: envy, the craving for pleasure, anger, and harsh speech.
- The best inheritance that a father can provide for his son is an education that will fit him to take an honored place among cultured men.
- 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 noble son.”
- Without tenderness of heart, the body is but bone veered up with leather. In love alone is the secret of life.
- If it is a good deed, never forget it. But if someone does a wrong, it is good that very day to forget it.
- 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.
- Manhood consists of 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.
- If men will see their own faults as they see others verily, evil would come to an end in this world.
- Even by inadvertence, do not think of any action that will hurt another. If you plan evil for anyone, the law of Nature decrees your own ruin.
- What good did the creatures of the earth do to clouds that pour the rain? So indeed should you serve society, seeking no return.
- Is there anything in much learning if it does not make a man feel the pain of others as keenly as the pain in his body and avoid causing it?
- The six essentials for a prosperous state are an adequate army, an industrious people, ample food resources, wise and alert Ministers of State, alliance foreign powers, and dependable fortifications.
- Think out fully before launching out on the action. To. think of devising ways and means in the course of action is fatal.
- It is folly to imagine that by wrapping oneself in cloth,. one has covered one’s indecency when the greater indecency of a bad character is still exposed.
- There can be no real union in a community when there. Is hatred concealed in the mind?
- Much pain is saved if one learns to eat only what has been found to suit one’s health and to exercise self-restraint in respect of quantity.
- Resolve to labor. Wholeheartedly for the honor of your nation and you will find your work bear fruit in a manner not imagined by you.
- Many other industries may be taken up, but ultimately the world depends on agriculture. So, despite its troubles, it is the best occupation.
- You may sometimes speak the harshest things to a man’s face, but do not indulge in the folly of attacking anyone behind his back.