Kural Read online

  Of those who give.

  233.

  Save fame unique and towering, nothing stands

  Undying in this world.

  234.

  The gods prefer to the merely learned

  Those long-famed on earth.

  235.

  It is only the wise who can convert

  Loss into gain, and death into life.

  236.

  Be born, if you must, for fame: or else

  Better not be born at all.*

  237.

  Why do the nameless blame those that despise them

  Rather than themselves?

  238.

  To die without leaving a name, they say,

  Is to incur the world’s reproach.

  239.

  The earth that bears inglorious bodies

  Will bear less and less.*

  240.

  Life without blame is life,

  Without fame death.

  (iii) Ascetic Virtue

  25. Kindliness

  241.

  The richest of riches is kindliness: mere pelf

  Even the mean possess.

  242.

  Seek and secure kindliness, the aid

  Which differing codes prescribe.

  243.

  The darkness and distress of hell

  Are not for the kindly.

  244.

  Those kindly to all creatures it is said

  Need fear no future for themselves.

  245.

  Our wind-blown world attests that grief

  Never afflicts the kindly.

  246.

  Those who are unkind and do ill, they say,

  Must be oblivious of the things that matter.

  247.

  This world is not for the poor,

  Nor the next for the unkind.

  248.

  The poor may be rich one day, but the graceless

  Will always lack grace.

  249.

  Sooner may the muddled head see Truth

  Than the hard heart do right.

  250.

  When you threaten a weaker than yourself

  Think of yourself before a bully.

  26. Vegetarianism

  251.

  How can he be kindly

  Who fattens himself on others’ fat?

  252.

  The fruits of wealth are not for the wastrel,

  Nor of grace for a meat-eater.

  253.

  Like a man armed to kill,

  A meat-eater does not discriminate.

  254.

  Grace is not killing, to kill disgrace;

  And to eat a thing killed, profitless sin.

  255.

  Not being swallowed is life; and hell

  Will swallow the meat-eater.*

  256.

  If men refrain from eating meat

  There will be none to sell it.*

  257.

  Know meat for an animal’s sore that it is,

  And you will not eat it.

  258.

  The undeluded will not feed on meat

  Which is but carrion.

  259.

  Better than a thousand burnt offerings

  Is one life unkilled, uneaten.

  260.

  All living things will fold their hands and bow

  To one who refuses meat.

  27. Penance

  261.

  To bear your pain and not pain others

  Is penance summed up.

  262.

  Penance is for the capable:

  For others a vanity.

  263.

  Is it to aid those intent on penance

  That the rest refrain from it?

  264.

  Through penance, if one wishes

  Foes can be routed, friends advanced.

  265.

  Men do penance on earth

  That they may get their heart’s desire.

  266.

  The penance-doer realizes his self, while those

  Caught in yearning’s net defeat themselves.

  267.

  As fire refines gold and makes it glow

  So pain the penance-doer.

  268.

  All the world will worship him

  Whose soul is his own.

  269.

  Even death is no bar to those

  Strengthened by penance.

  270.

  The have-nots outnumber the haves

  Because penance is not for the many.

  28. Impropriety

  271.

  The five elements will laugh within*

  At a hypocrite’s lying conduct.

  272.

  What use is a sky-high pose to one

  Who knowingly does wrong?

  273.

  A weakling in a giant’s form

  Is an ox grazing in a tiger’s skin.

  274.

  A sinning ascetic uses his cloak

  As a bird-hunter a bush.

  275.

  Those who say they are unattached and sin

  Will cry in misery, “Alas!” “Alas!”

  276.

  There is none so cruel as the lying ascetic

  Who lives by deceit.

  277.

  Like the konri red to view but black on top

  Are many, ochre-robed but black within.*

  278.

  Many spotted minds bathe in holy streams

  And lead a double life.

  279.

  The lute is bent, the arrow straight: judge men

  Not by their looks but acts.

  280.

  No need of tonsure or long hair

  If one but avoids what the world condemns.

  29. Thieving

  281.

  If you would avoid contempt,

  Guard your thought against theft.

  282.

  The very thought of robbing another

  Is evil.

  283.

  Stolen wealth may seem to swell

  But in the end will burst.

  284.

  The lust to steal will in the end

  Give endless trouble.

  285.

  Those are incapable of other-worldly love

  Who plot evil for worldly goods.

  286.

  They will not stick to virtue

  Who love stealing.

  287.

  The wish to steal, that dark cloud of unknowing,

  Will not overtake the virtuous.

  288.

  As virtue in a good man’s thoughts,

  So greed and deceit in a thief’s.

  289.

  Those who know nothing but to rob

  Will sin and fail at once.

  290.

  The unthieving gain heaven;

  Thieves lose both body and soul.

  30. Truthfulness

  291.

  Truthfulness may be described as utterance

  Wholly devoid of ill.

  292.

  Even a lie is truthful

  If it does unsullied good.

  293.

  Lie not against your conscience

  Lest it burn you.

  294.

  Not false to one’s own conscience one will reign

  In all the world’s consciousness.

  295.

  Truthfulness in thought and word

  Outweighs penance and charity.*

  296.

  Nothing can equal truthfulness

  In getting fame and other virtues.

  297.

  To be unfailingly true

  Is to be unfailing in other virtues.

  298.

  Water ensures external purity

  And truthfulness shows the internal.

  299.

  All lights are not lights: to the wise

  The only light is truth.

  300.

  In all the gospels we have rea
d we have found

  Nothing held higher than truthfulness.

  31. Wrath

  301.

  The real curb is curbing effective wrath;

  What matters other wrath, curbed or uncurbed?

  302.

  Vain wrath is bad, but where it avails

  There is nothing worse.

  303.

  Be wroth with none; all evil

  Springs of it.

  304.

  Is there a foe more fell than wrath

  Which kills laughter and love?

  305.

  Keep wrath at bay if you would guard yourself;

  Unchecked it kills.

  306.

  Wrath is a fire which kills near and far

  Burning both kinsmen and life’s boat.*

  307.

  A wrathful man’s ruin is as hurtful and sure

  As the earth struck with one’s hand.

  308.

  It is better to curb one’s wrath

  Even against blazing affront.

  309.

  All things desired are his at once

  Whose mind is free of wrath.

  310.

  Temper intemperate is death,

  Wrath given up renunciation.

  32. Not Hurting Others

  311.

  The pure in heart will never hurt others

  Even for wealth and renown.*

  312.

  The code of the pure in heart

  Is not to return hurt for angry hurt.

  313.

  Vengeance even against a wanton insult

  Does endless damage.*

  314.

  Punish an evil-doer by shaming him

  With a good deed, and forget.

  315.

  What good is that sense which does not feel and prevent

  All creatures’ woes as its own?

  316.

  Do not do to others what you know

  Has hurt yourself.

  317.

  It is best to refrain from wilfully hurting*

  Anyone, anytime, anyway.

  318.

  Why does one hurt others

  Knowing what it is to be hurt?

  319.

  The hurt you cause in the forenoon self-propelled

  Will overtake you in the afternoon.

  320.

  Hurt comes to the hurtful; hence it is

  That those don’t hurt who do not want to be hurt.

  33. Non-killing

  321.

  The sum of virtue is not to kill

  All sin comes from killing.

  322.

  The first of virtues in every creed

  Is to share your food and cherish all life.

  323.

  The unique virtue is non-killing; Not lying comes next.

  324.

  Right conduct may be defined

  As the creed of not killing.

  325.

  Ascetics fear rebirth and renounce the world:

  How much better to fear murder and renounce killing!

  326.

  Death that eats up all shall not prevail

  Against the non-killer.

  327.

  Even at the cost of one’s own life

  One should avoid killing.

  328.

  However great its gains, the wise despise

  The profits of slaughter.*

  329.

  Professional killers are pariahs

  To the discerning.

  330.

  A diseased, poor and low life, they say,

  Comes of killing in the past.

  34. Impermanence

  331.

  To take the fleeting for the permanent

  Is foolish and pitiable.

  332.

  Great wealth, like a crowd at a concert,

  Gathers and melts.

  333.

  Wealth never stays; use it on the instant

  On things that stay.

  334.

  A day, so called, if rightly understood,

  Is a sword hacking at life.

  335.

  Do good in time, ere the tongue dies

  With the last hiccup.

  336.

  “He was here yesterday”, gloats the earth over man,

  “Today he is gone”.*

  337.

  Men unsure of the next moment

  Make more than a million plans.

  338.

  Like a bird’s to the shell it leaves

  Is a life’s link to its body.

  339.

  Death is but a sleep, and birth

  An awakening.

  340.

  Can life never have a house of its own

  Cribbed ever in its cabin?

  35. Renunciation

  341.

  As one by one we give up

  We get freer and freer of pain.

  342.

  Renounce early if you seek joy;

  Great gladness awaits the ascetic.

  343.

  Control the five senses and give up

  All longings at once.

  344.

  To give up all behoves the ascetic:

  Attachment deludes.

  345.

  When on liberation’s road the very body is a burden

  Why take other luggage?

  346.

  His is the world beyond heaven

  Who is free of the delusion of “I” and “Mine”.

  347.

  Sorrows will cling to those who cling

  To likes and dislikes.

  348.

  Those who give up all are saved;

  The rest are caught in delusion.

  349.

  Life’s tangle is cut with detachment;

  Uncut the thread is endless.

  350.

  Cling to the One who clings to nothing;

  And so clinging, cease to cling.*

  36. Realization

  351.

  Of the folly which takes the unreal for real

  Comes the wretchedness of birth.

  352.

  The pure of vision undeluded

  Shall taste radiant joy.

  353.

  To those freed of doubt and clear

  More than earth is Heaven near.

  354.

  Where a sense of the Real is lacking,

  The other five senses are useless.*

  355.

  The mark of wisdom is to see the reality

  Behind each appearance.

  356.

  Those who have learnt to see the reality here

  Will have learnt not to come back here.

  357.

  Reality once searched and seized

  No need to think of rebirth.

  358.

  Wisdom is that rare realization

  Which removes the folly of rebirth.

  359.

  To one who clings and does not cling

  Clinging ills will not cling.

  360.

  Where lust, wrath and delusion are unknown

  Sorrow shall not be.

  37. Yearning

  361.

  Desire, they say, is the seed of ceaseless birth

  For all things living at all times.

  362.

  “No birth again” should be our only wish—

  And the way to that is never to wish at all.

  363.

  No greater fortune here than not to yearn,

  And none to excel it hereafter too!

  364.

  Purity is freedom from yearning

  And comes of seeking Truth.

  365.

  Those are free who are free of yearning;

  Others, of all else free, unfree.*

  366.

  Desire is the great betrayer, and its dread

  The best virtue.

  367.

  To him who uproots desire salvation comes
>
  In the most desirable form.

  368.

  Where yearning is not, sorrow is not;

  Where it is, endless dole.

  369.

  Where yearning ceases, the sorrow of sorrows,

  Joy unceasing shall flow.

  370.

  Eternal joy is ensured

  When yearning ever hungry is expelled.

  (iv) Fate

  38. Fate

  371.

  Favouring fate induces energy,

  Depriving fate inertia.*

  372.

  Adverse fate befools, and when time serves

  A friendly fate sharpens the brain.

  373.

  A man may have studied many subtle works,

  But what survives is his innate wisdom.

  374.

  Twofold is the way of the world—

  Wealth is one, wisdom another.

  375.

  Favourable means prove adverse, adverse help

  When fate intervenes.

  376.

  What is not naturally ours cannot be got,

  Nor what is, ejected.

  377.

  Except as disposed by the Great Disposer

  Even crores amassed may not be enjoyed.

  378.

  That the destitutes have not become ascetics

  Is because of their fate.

  379.

  Why do those who take good luck in their stride

  Jibe at bad?

  380.

  What is stronger than fate which foils

  Every ploy to counter it?

  Book II

  WEALTH

  (i) The State

  39. The King

  381.

  Who has these six is a lion among kings:

  An army, subjects, food, ministers, allies and forts.

  382.

  These four unfailing mark a king:

  Courage, liberality, wisdom and energy.

  383.

  A ruler should never lack these three:

  Diligence, learning and boldness.

  384.

  He is a true king who sticks to virtue,

  Removes evil, and is spotless in valour.

  385.

  He is a king who can do these—

  Produce, acquire, conserve and dispense.

  386.

  That king is to be extolled

  Who is easy of access and soft-spoken.

  387.

  The world will yield all to that king

  Who is sweet-spoken and liberal.

  388.

  He who is a just protector

  Will be deemed the Lord’s Deputy.

  389.

  That land is safe which is under his parasol

  Who hears with patience what may not please.

  390.

  A light among kings is he who has

  Grace, bounty, justice and concern.