Thirukkural in English - From chapters 031 to 038

Division I. Virtue - From chapters 031 to 038

031 Avoiding wrath

0301 Curb wrath in places where it matters. In other places,
What matters if curbed or uncurbed?

0302 Even where it cannot hurt others, anger is bad;
But where it does, there is nothing worse.

0303 From anger is born all evil.
Forget provocation given by anyone.

0304 Can there be a greater foe than anger
Which kills laughter and joy?

0305 If you want to guard yourself, guard against anger;
If unguarded, anger will kill you.

0306 The fire of anger which kills kinsmen
Burns the life-saving boat of kith and kin.

0307 He who holds anger worthy will be hurt
Like the hands that smash the earth.

0308 Better curb one's wrath even if tortured
Like being forced into blazing fire.

0309 All wishes are realized at once
If they keep away wrath from their mind.

0310 Deem those given to anger dead
And those renounced it on par with saints.

032 Not hurting

0311 The pure in heart will never hurt others
Even for wealth that confers renown.

0312 The code of the pure in heart
Is not to hurt in return any hurt caused in hate.

0313 Vengeance even against a wanton insult
Brings unbearable woes.

0314 Punish an evil-doer
By shaming him with a good deed.

0315 What does a man gain from his wisdom
If he pines not at others' pain as his own?


0316 Do not do to others what you know
Has hurt yourself.

0317 It is best to refrain from willfully hurting
Anyone, anytime, anyway.

0318 Why does one hurt others
Knowing what it is to be hurt?

0319 The pain you inflict on others in the morn,
Will come back at you on its own by eve.

0320 Hurt comes to the hurtful; hence it is those
Who don't want to be hurt cause no hurt.


033 Not killing

0321 What is virtue? It is not to kill,
For killing causes every ill.

0322 The chief of all codes ever written
Is to share your food and protect all life.

0323 The first and foremost good is 'Non killing'.
Next to it in rank comes 'Not lying'.

0324 What is the perfect path?
It is the path of avoiding killing anything.

0325 Of all who renounce fearing instability, the foremost is he
Who avoids killing fearing murder.

0326 Death that eats up life spares the breath of him
Who puts no life to death.

0327 Avoid removing the dear life of another
Even when your own life is under threat.

0328 However great its gains,
The wise despise the profits of slaughter.

0329 Men who practice slaughter as a profession
Are placed amongst men of disgrace.

0330 A deprived life of diseased bodies, they say,
Comes from depriving the life of another.


034 Impermanence

0331 No baser folly than the infatuation
That takes the fleeting for the permanent.

0332 Great wealth, like a crowd at a concert,
Gathers and melts.

0333 Perishable is the nature of wealth; if you obtain it,
Forthwith do something not perishable.

0334 A day in reality is nothing but
A relentless slicing of a saw through one's life.

0335 Better commit some good acts before the tongue
Benumbs and deadly hiccup descends.

0336 The one who existed yesterday is no more today.
That is the glory of earthly life.

0337 Men unsure of living the next moment,
Make more than a million plans.

0338 The soul's link to the body
Is like the bird that flies away from the nest.

0339 Death is like sleep,
And birth an awakening from it.

0340 Is there no permanent refuge for the soul,
Which takes a temporary shelter in the body?


035 Renunciation

0341 'Whatever thing of whatever kind' a man relinquishes,
Suffering 'there from, there from' he has none.

0342 Renounce early if you seek joy;
For many are the delights in store after renouncing.

0343 To be controlled are the senses five
And to be given up at once are all cravings.

0344 Nature of penance is giving up everything.
Else, it is a return to snares once given up.

0345 When the body itself is a burden on the way to liberation,
Why carry other attachments?

0346 His is the world beyond heaven
Who is free of the delusion of "I" and "Mine".

0347 Sorrows will never give up its hold on those
Who never give up their hold of desire.

0348 Those who give up all are saved.
The rest are caught in the snare of delusion.

0349 Detachment alone severs rebirth.
All else will be found transient.

0350 Cling to the one who clings to nothing;
And so clinging, cease to cling.


036 Truth realization

0351 The misery of birth arises out of the delusion
Which takes the unreal for the Real.

0352 Darkness disappears and bliss descends
Upon men of clear vision and free of delusion.

0353 To those enlightened souls freed of doubt,
More than earth is heaven near.

0354 Where a sense of the Real is lacking,
The other five senses are useless.

0355 Wisdom is to ascertain the reality
In whatever way things are presented.

0356 Those who have learnt to see the reality here
Will have learnt not to come back here.

0357 Reality once searched and seized,
No need to think of rebirth.

0358 Wisdom lies in realizing that unique Reality
To remove the folly of rebirth.

0359 To one who does not cling, realizing what to cling,
Clinging ills will not cling.

0360 Lust, wrath and delusion: Where these three are unknown,
Sorrows shall not be.


037 Eradicating desire

0361 Desire, they say, is the seed of ceaseless birth
For all things living at all times.

0362 Must you desire, desire freedom from birth.
That comes only by desiring desirelessness.

0363 No greater fortune here than not to yearn,
And none to excel it hereafter too!

0364 Purity is freedom from yearning
And that comes of seeking Truth.

0365 Those are free who are free of yearning.
Others, of all else free, remain un-free.

0366 If you love virtue, flee from desire;
For desire is a great betrayer.

0367 When all deeds of desire are uprooted,
Liberation comes as and when desired.

0368 Where there is no desire, there is no sorrow.
Where there is, it comes over and above.

0369 When the misery of miseries called desire ends,
The result is never-ending joy.

0370 The state of eternal bliss will result
When desire that is insatiable is conquered.


038 Fate

0371 The gains of labour, and loss due to languor,
Are both outcomes of fate.

0372 Adverse fate befools, and when time serves
A harmless fate expands knowledge.

0373 A man may have studied many subtle works,
But what survives is his innate wisdom.

0374 The world ordains two different ways:
Acquiring wealth is one, attaining wisdom another.

0375 In business dealings, fate can turn
All good things bad and even bad good.

0376 What is not naturally ours cannot be got,
Nor what is natural, ejected.

0377 Except as disposed by the Disposer,
Even millions amassed may not be enjoyed.

0378 That the destitute have not renounced
Is because fate has not relieved them of their share.

0379 Why do those who take good luck in their stride,
Struggle when encountered with bad?

0380 What is there mightier than fate? For it overtakes us
In spite of our plans to overcome it.