TIRUKKURAL, Mysticism, reading, forums, Numerology, Sun Signs, Divination

Posts: 4397 · Posted: Sun May 18, 2008 12:02 am

1.2.3. The Obtaining of Sons

61.
Of all that men acquire, we know not any greater gain,
Than that which by the birth of learned children men obtain.
Among all the benefits that may be acquired, we know no greater benefit than the acquisition of intelligent children.

62.
Who children gain, that none reproach, of virtuous worth,
No evils touch them, through the sev'n-fold maze of birth.
The evils of the seven births shall not touch those who abtain children of a good disposition, free from vice.

63.
'Man's children are his fortune,' say the wise;
From each one's deeds his varied fortunes rise.
Men will call their sons their wealth, because it flows to them through the deeds which they (sons) perform on their behalf.

64.
Than God's ambrosia sweeter far the food before men laid,
In which the little hands of children of their own have play'd.
The rice in which the little hand of their children has dabbled will be far sweeter (to the parent) than ambrosia.

65.
To patent sweet the touch of children dear;
Their voice is sweetest music to his ear.
The touch of children gives pleasure to the body, and the hearing of their words, pleasure to the ear.

66.
'The pipe is sweet,' 'the lute is sweet,' by them't will be averred,
Who music of their infants' lisping lips have never heard.
"The pipe is sweet, the lute is sweet," say those who have not heard the prattle of their own children.

67.
Sire greatest boon on son confers, who makes him meet,
In councils of the wise to fill the highest seat.
The benefit which a father should confer on his son is to give him precedence in the assembly of the learned.

68.
Their children's wisdom greater than their own confessed,
Through the wide world is sweet to every human breast.
That their children should possess knowledge is more pleasing to all men of this great earth than to themselves.

69
When mother hears him named 'fulfill'd of wisdom's lore,'
Far greater joy she feels, than when her son she bore.
The mother who hears her son called "a wise man" will rejoice more than she did at his birth.

70.
To sire, what best requital can by grateful child be done?
To make men say, 'What merit gained the father such a son?'
(So to act) that it may be said "by what great penance did his father beget him," is the benefit which a son should render to his father.

1.2.4. The Possession of Love

71.
And is there bar that can even love restrain?
The tiny tear shall make the lover's secret plain.
Is there any fastening that can shut in love ? Tears of the affectionate will publish the love that is within.

72.
The loveless to themselves belong alone;
The loving men are others' to the very bone.
Those who are destitute of love appropriate all they have to themselves; but those who possess love consider even their bones to belong to others.

73.
Of precious soul with body's flesh and bone,
The union yields one fruit, the life of love alone.
They say that the union of soul and body in man is the fruit of the union of love and virtue (in a former birth).

74.
From love fond yearning springs for union sweet of minds;
And that the bond of rare excelling friendship binds.
Love begets desire: and that (desire) begets the immeasureable excellence of friendship.

75
Sweetness on earth and rarest bliss above,
These are the fruits of tranquil life of love.
They say that the felicity which those who, after enjoying the pleasure (of the conjugal state) in this world, obtain in heaven is the result of their domestic state imbued with love.

76.
The unwise deem love virtue only can sustain,
It also helps the man who evil would restrain.
The ignorant say that love is an ally to virtue only, but it is also a help to get out of vice.

77,
As sun's fierce ray dries up the boneless things,
So loveless beings virtue's power to nothing brings.
Virtue will burn up the soul which is without love, even as the sun burns up the creature which is without bone, i.e. worms.

78.
The loveless soul, the very joys of life may know,
When flowers, in barren soil, on sapless trees, shall blow.
The domestic state of that man whose mind is without love is like the flourishing of a withered tree upon the parched desert.

79.
Though every outward part complete, the body's fitly framed;
What good, when soul within, of love devoid, lies halt and maimed?
Of what avail are all the external members (of the body) to those who are destitute of love, the internal member.

80.
Bodies of loveless men are bony framework clad with skin;
Then is the body seat of life, when love resides within.
That body alone which is inspired with love contains a living soul: if void of it, (the body) is bone overlaid with skin.