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

Posts: 4397 · Posted: Sun Jun 22, 2008 6:51 am

1.3.8 The Extirpation of Desire

361
The wise declare, through all the days, to every living thing.
That ceaseless round of birth from seed of strong desire doth spring.
(The wise) say that the seed, which produces unceasing births, at all times, to all creatures, is desire.

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If desire you feel, freedom from changing birth require!
'I' will come, if you desire to 'scape, set free from all desire.
If anything be desired, freedom from births should be desired; that (freedom from births) will be attained by desiring to be without desire.

363
No glorious wealth is here like freedom from desire;
To bliss like this not even there can soul aspire.
There is in this world no excellence equal to freedom from desire; and even in that world, there is nothing like it.

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Desire's decease as purity men know;
That, too, from yearning search for truth will grow.
Purity (of mind) consists in freedom from desire; and that (freedom from desire) is the fruit of the love of truth.

365
Men freed from bonds of strong desire are free;
None other share such perfect liberty.
They are said to be free (from future birth) who are freed from desire; all others (who, whatever else they may be free from, are not freed from desire) are not thus free.

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Desire each soul beguiles;
True virtue dreads its wiles.
It is the chief duty of (an ascetic) to watch against desire with (jealous) fear; for it has power to deceive (and destroy) him.

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Who thoroughly rids his life of passion-prompted deed,
Deeds of unfailing worth shall do, which, as he plans, succeed.
If a man thoroughly cut off all desire, the deeds, which confer immortality, will come to him, in the path in which he seeks them.

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Affliction is not known where no desires abide;
Where these are, endless rises sorrow's tide.
There is no sorrow to those who are without desire; but where that is, (sorrow) will incessantly come, more and more.

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When dies away desire, that woe of woes
Ev'n here the soul unceasing rapture knows.
Even while in this body, joy will never depart (from the mind, in which) desire, that sorrow of sorrows, has been destroyed.

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Drive from thy soul desire insatiate;
Straight'way is gained the moveless blissful state.
The removal of desire, whose nature it is never to be satisfied, will immediately confer a nature that can never be changed.

1.4 Fate
1.4.1 Fate

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Wealth-giving fate power of unflinching effort brings;
From fate that takes away idle remissness springs.
Perseverance comes from a prosperous fate, and idleness from an adverse fate.

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The fate that loss ordains makes wise men's wisdom foolishness;
The fate that gain bestows with ampler powers will wisdom bless.
An adverse fate produces folly, and a prosperous fate produces enlarged knowledge.

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In subtle learning manifold though versed man be,
'The wisdom, truly his, will gain supremacy.
Although (a man) may study the most polished treatises, the knowledge which fate has decreed to him will still prevail.

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Two fold the fashion of the world: some live in fortune's light;
While other some have souls in wisdom's radiance bright.
There are (through fate) two different natures in the world, hence the difference (observable in men) in (their acquisition of) wealth, and in their attainment of knowledge.

375
All things that good appear will oft have ill success;
All evil things prove good for gain of happiness.
In the acquisition of property, every thing favourable becomes unfavourable, and (on the other hand) everything unfavourable becomes favourable, (through the power of fate).

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Things not your own will yield no good, howe'er you guard with pain;
Your own, howe'er you scatter them abroad, will yours remain.
Whatever is not conferred by fate cannot be preserved although it be guarded with most painful care; and that, which fate has made his, cannot be lost, although one should even take it and throw it away.

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Save as the 'sharer' shares to each in due degree,
To those who millions store enjoyment scarce can be.
Even those who gather together millions will only enjoy them, as it has been determined by the disposer (of all things).

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The destitute with ascetics merit share,
If fate to visit with predestined ills would spare.
The destitute will renounce desire (and become ascetics), if (fate) do not make them suffer the hindrances to which they are liable, and they pass away.

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When good things come, men view them all as gain;
When evils come, why then should they complain?
How is it that those, who are pleased with good fortune, trouble themselves when evil comes, (since both are equally the decree of fate) ?

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What powers so great as those of Destiny? Man's skill
Some other thing contrives; but fate's beforehand still.
What is stronger than fate ? If we think of an expedient (to avert it), it will itself be with us before (the thought).