Kural Page 8
876.
When hard beset keep your options open
Even among those previously tested.
877.
Keep your sorrows from your friends
And your weakness from your foes.
878.
Plan, strengthen and guard yourself,
And your foe’s hopes will collapse
879.
Cut a thorn betimes—grown a tree
It will hurt the hand that cuts.
880.
The foe despised and not put down;
May blast you with a breath.
89. The Enemy Within
881.
Even shade and water not wholesome will harm—
Likewise one’s kinsmen.
882.
No need to fear the enemy with swords—
Beware of the false friend.
883.
Beware of the foe within—like the potter’s knife
He might cut you at the nick.
884.
Lying dissensions breed many evils
That break up unity.
885.
Secret dissensions caused by kinsmen
May lead to disaster and death.
886.
A break where there should be unity
Is no way to avoid death.
887.
A house divided like a vial and its lid
Seems one but comes apart.*
888.
A house with internal foes will wear out
Like iron filed.
889.
Internal dissension is a small seed
That harbours a huge growth.
890.
To partner one with a hidden hate
Is to share a hut with a cobra.
90. Irreverence
891.
The best way to guard oneself
Is not to slight the powerful.
892.
Irreverence to the great will lead
To endless trouble through them.
893.
To offend the powerful wantonly
Is to ask for trouble.
894.
For the weak to challenge the mighty
Is for a mortal to beckon death.
895.
Where can he find shelter and escape
Who falls foul of a powerful king?
896.
One may survive a fire but not the ire
Of a sage offended.
897.
What avails pomp and wealth if one
Rouses the wrath of a sage?
898.
If the rock-like sages wish to destroy
Those seeming rooted will perish utterly.
899.
Even kings will collapse
If a sage’s wrath is roused.
900.
Kings with all their army and kin
Cannot survive a sage’s wrath.
91. Uxoriousness
901.
Wives unduly exalted impede
Virtue and career.
902.
The unmanly doings of an uxorious man
Are a public scandal.
903.
Cowardly submission to one’s wife leads
To endless shame among decent men.
904.
A henpecked husband acquires no virtue,
Nor do his deeds achieve fame.
905.
A man who fears his wife will always fear
To do good to the good.
906.
Those who fear their wives’ slender shoulders
May live like gods but are not men.
907.
Better a shy woman herself than the effeminate man
Who does a woman’s bidding.
908.
A doting husband will have no time
For friends or virtuous deeds.
909.
Virtue, wealth and happiness
Are not for the henpecked.
910.
The firm-willed are forever free
Of uxorious folly.
92. Public Women
911.
Fraught with ill are the sweet words
Of jewelled women who sell their love.
912.
See through and avoid the immoral women
Who talk of morals with a purpose.
913.
A harlot’s embrace feigning love for lucre
Is like one clasping an alien corpse in a dark room for money.*
914.
The wise seeking grace will have no use
For prostitutes seeking mammon.
915.
Men of wisdom inborn or acquired
Will find no joy in the cheap delight of a harlot.
916.
Those who would spread their good name will not touch
Others who spread their charms for money.
917.
The empty-hearted alone will embrace
Hearts that go not with their bodies.
918.
A false woman’s embrace is a siren’s
To one who cannot see through it.
919.
The soft shoulders of those who sell their charms
Are a bog for low minds.
920.
Fortune leaves those whose friends
Are wantons, wine and dice.
93. Abstinence
921.
A wine-lover strikes no fear in his foes
And his glory wanes.
922.
Drink no wine, or let them drink it
Who do not care what wise men think.
923.
When a drunkard’s glee hurts his own mother,
Why speak of the wise?
924.
The good lady
Shame averts her face
From the disgusting vice of drunkenness.
925.
Rank ignorance alone will pay for and get
Self-ignorance.
926.
The sleeping do not differ from the dead—
Nor wine from poison.
927.
The secret drinker with his drooping eyes
Is the village butt.
928.
Don’t say, “I never drank”:
Secrets will be out when drunk.
929.
As well search for a drowned man with a lamp under water
As reason with one drowned in drink.
930.
When a drunkard sober sees another drunk
Why does he not note his own damage?
94. Gambling
931.
Don’t gamble even if you win—
Your gain is a bait to draw you in.
932.
Can gamblers ever thrive
Who gain one and lose a hundred?
933.
To be lost all the time in the rolling dice
Is to lose your wealth to others.
934.
There is nothing like gambling to bring
Poverty, sorrow and disgrace.
935.
They lose all who will not give up
The dice, the board and the throw.
936.
Those caught by the Goddess of Poverty called Dice
Will starve on earth and burn in hell.*
937.
Time wasted in a gambling house
Loses ancestral wealth and worth.
938.
Dicing loses wealth, imposes lies,
Kills grace and causes sorrow.
939.
The gambler will lose riches and renown,
Learning, food and clothes.
940.
Life goes on in spite of sorrow
And stakes in spite of loss!
95. Medicine
941.
Three things beginning with wind, say the experts,
In excess or lacking cause disease.*
942.
His body needs no drugs who only eats
After digesting what he ate before.
943.
Past food digested, eat in measure
And so live long.
944.
Assured of digestion and truly hungry
Eat with care agreeable food.
945.
Agreeable food in moderation
Ensures absence of pain.
946.
As health to a moderate eater
So disease sticks to a glutton.
947.
Measureless eating the stomach cannot tackle
Causes measureless ills.
948.
Diagnose with care, discover the cause,
And find and apply the remedy.
949.
A doctor should treat taking account
Of the patient, the illness and the time.
950.
The patient, the doctor, the remedy and attendant
Are medicine’s four limbs.
(iii) Miscellaneous
96. Lineage
951.
Integrity and shame are natural
Only to the well-born.
952.
Men of birth will never slip
In conduct, truth and refinement.
953.
A smiling face, a generous heart, sweet words and no scorn
Are said to mark the well-born.
954.
Men of birth will not be mean
Even for countless wealth.
955.
An ancient family may default in charity,
Never in their conduct.
956.
Those wedded to their spotless heritage
Will do nothing unworthy or false.
957.
A failing in a noble family
Stands out like the moon’s spot.
958.
His lineage is suspect
Who is harsh and loveless.
959.
The plant betrays the soil, and his speech
The man of birth.
960.
There is no good without a sense of shame
Nor high birth without politeness.
97. Honour
961.
Reject base actions even if such rejection
Makes life impossible.
962.
Those who desire fame with honour
Will not sacrifice honour for fame.
963.
In prosperity, bend low;
In adversity, stand straight.
964.
Men fallen from high estate
Are like hair fallen from the head.
965.
Even a hill-like eminence can be brought low
By a small speck.
966.
Why pursue the proud and get
No name on earth, no place in heaven?
967.
Rather than the life of a dependant
Prefer death on the spot.
968.
Does life saved at the cost of honour
Put death off forever?
969.
Like the yak that dies for its hair
Some die for their honour.
970.
The world sings the praise of those who prefer
Death to dishonour.
98. Greatness
971.
Glory is the desire to excel;
And to live without it, shame.
972.
Birth is alike to all—but not their worth
Because of their diverse deeds.
973.
The high who act low are not high,
Nor the low who act high, low.
974.
Fame is a jealous mistress
And will brook no rival.
975.
The great will achieve deeds
Rare in achievement.
976.
The small are incapable of regard
For the great.
977.
The good points of the small-minded
Only make them arrogant.
978.
The great are always humble, and the small
Lost in self-admiration.
979.
Greatness is never puffed up, while the small
Are inordinately proud.
980.
The great hide others’ faults—
Only the small talk of nothing else.
99. Character
981.
All virtues are said to be natural to those
Who acquire character as a duty.
982.
To the wise the only worth
Is character, naught else.
983.
The pillars of excellence are five—love, modesty,
Altruism, compassion, truthfulness.
984.
The core of penance is not killing,
Of goodness not speaking slander.
985.
The secret of success is humility;
It is also wisdom’s weapon against foes.
986.
The touchstone of goodness is to own one’s defeat
Even to inferiors.
987.
What good is that good which does not return
Good for evil?
988.
Poverty is no disgrace.
To one with strength of character.
989.
Seas may whelm, but men of character
Will stand like the shore.
990.
If the great fail in nobility, the earth
Will bear us no more.
100. Courtesy
991.
Accessibility, they say, is the easy way
To be courteous to all.
992.
Gentle kin and kindliness combined
Constitute courtesy.
993.
Not with their bodies do people come together
But with their gifts and graces.
994.
The world loves the gentility which combines
Justice with benevolence.
995.
Mockery hurts even in jest, and hence
The kindly are courteous even to their foes.
996.
The world goes on because of good men—
Else it will turn to dust.
997.
Their minds may be sharp as files, but the boorish
Behave like trees.
998.
It is base to be discourteous
Even to one’s enemies.
999.
This world is dark even at noon
To those who cannot laugh.
1000.
A boor’s great wealth is milk gone sour
In a can unscrubbed.
101. Useless Wealth
1001.
A miser makes of his vast wealth
No more use than a corpse.
1002.
The hoarder deluded that wealth was all
Haunts it as a ghost when dead.
1003.
They are a burden on earth who prefer
Hoarding to fame.
1004.
What does he think will survive him
Whom none loves?
1005.
He is poor though a millionaire
Who neither gives nor spends.
1006.
Riches are a curse when neither enjoyed
Nor given to the worthy.
1007.
Wealth not given to the needy
Like a lovely spinster goes to waste.
1008.
The wealth of the unloved
Is a poison tree which ripens at hand.
1009.
Strangers shall possess that wealth
Amassed without love, comfort or scruples.
1010.
The poverty of the virtuous will pass
Like dr
ought before rain.
102. Nicety
1011.
Girls are shy by nature: real shyness
Refrains from a mean act.
1012.
Food, clothes and the rest are common to all—
Distinction comes with nicety.
1013.
All life is attached to the body,
All excellence to nicety.
1014.
Isn’t nicety the jewel of the great
And, the lack of it pomposity and a curse?
1015.
The world regards him as nicety’s abode
To whom another’s shame is his own.
1016.
Noble men will not accept the world itself
Unfenced by nicety.
1017.
Those attached to nicety will lose their life for it,
Never nicety for their life.
1018.
Virtue will shrink from one who does not shrink
From what others shrink from.
1019.
Bad conduct loses caste, but all is lost
By lack of shame.
1020.
Those not controlled by innate nicety
Are puppets miming life, controlled by a string.
103. Social Service
1021.
There is nothing more glorious than to persist
In the advance of the community.*
1022.
Ceaseless zeal and wisdom—these two—
Advance the community.
1023.
Fate itself girds up its loins and rushes
To help one bent on social service.
1024.
Success will come of itself
To the hard social worker.
1025.
The world will flock round one devoted
To honest social service.
1026.
True manliness is the taking on
Of the leadership of one’s people.
1027.
In social work as in the battlefield
The burden falls on the fit.
1028.
There is no set time for social service:
To put off and be finical is ruinous.
1029.
“Must my body be a cup of bitterness?”
Might well be the reformer’s cry.
1030.
Society will crash axed by misfortune
Without good men to support it.
104. Agriculture
1031.
After trying other jobs the world comes to the plough,
Which though hard is best.
1032.
Ploughmen are the earth’s axle-pin;
They carry all the world.
1033.
They only live whose food is what they raise—
The rest must cringe and trail.
1034.
The might of many kingdoms comes under the shade