PART I. VIRTUE - Ascetic Virtue

Chapter. 32. Not doing Evil

Kural - 311
Though ill to neighbour wrought should glorious pride of wealth secure,
No ill to do is fixed decree of men in spirit pure.
It is the determination of the spotless not to cause sorrow to others, although they could (by so causing) obtain the wealth which confers greatness.

Kural - 312
Though malice work its worst, planning no ill return, to endure,
And work no ill, is fixed decree of men in spirit pure.
It is the determination of the spotless not to do evil, even in return, to those who have cherished enmity and done them evil.

Kural - 313
Though unprovoked thy soul malicious foes should sting,
Retaliation wrought inevitable woes will bring.
In an ascetic inflict suffering even on those who hate him, when he has not done them any evil, it will afterwards give him irretrievable sorrow.

Kural - 314
To punish wrong, with kindly benefits the doers ply;
Thus shame their souls; but pass the ill unheeded by.
The (proper) punishment to those who have done evil (to you), is to put them to shame by showing them kindness, in return and to forget both the evil and the good done on both sides.

Kural - 315
From wisdom's vaunted lore what doth the learner gain,
If as his own he guard not others' souls from pain?
What benefit has he derived from his knowledge, who does not endeavour to keep off pain from another as much as from himself ?

Kural - 316
What his own soul has felt as bitter pain,
From making others feel should man abstain.
Let not a man consent to do those things to another which, he knows, will cause sorrow.

Kural - 317
To work no wilful woe, in any wise, through all the days,
To any living soul, is virtue's highest praise.
It is the chief of all virtues not knowingly to do any person evil, even in the lowest degree, and at any time.

Kural - 318
Whose soul has felt the bitter smart of wrong, how can
He wrongs inflict on ever-living soul of man?
Why does a man inflict upon other creatures those sufferings, which he has found by experience are sufferings to himself ?

Kural - 319
If, ere the noontide, you to others evil do,
Before the eventide will evil visit you.
If a man inflict sorrow upon others in the morning, it will come upon him unsought in the very evening.

Kural - 320
O'er every evil-doer evil broodeth still;
He evil shuns who freedom seeks from ill.
Sorrow will come upon those who cause pain to others; therfore those, who desire to be free from sorrow, give no pain to others.

Chapter. 33. Not killing

Kural - 321
What is the work of virtue? 'Not to kill';
For 'killing' leads to every work of ill.
Never to destroy life is the sum of all virtuous conduct. The destruction of life leads to every evil.

Kural - 322
Let those that need partake your meal; guard every-thing that lives;
This the chief and sum of lore that hoarded wisdom gives.
The chief of all (the virtues) which authors have summed up, is the partaking of food that has been shared with others, and the preservation of the mainfold life of other creatures.

Kural - 323
Alone, first of goods things, is 'not to slay';
The second is, no untrue word to say.
Not to destroy life is an incomparably (great) good next to it in goodness ranks freedom from falsehood.

Kural - 324
You ask, What is the good and perfect way?
'Tis path of him who studies nought to slay.
Good path is that which considers how it may avoid killing any creature.

Kural - 325
Of those who 'being' dread, and all renounce, the chief are they,
Who dreading crime of slaughter, study nought to slay.
Of all those who, fearing the permanence of earthly births, have abandoned desire, he is the chief who, fearing (the guilt of) murder, considers how he may avoid the destruction of life.

Kural - 326
Ev'n death that life devours, their happy days shall spare,
Who law, 'Thou shall not kill', uphold with reverent care.
Yama, the destroyer of life, will not attack the life of him, who acts under the determination of never destroying life.

Kural - 327
Though thine own life for that spared life the price must pay,
Take not from aught that lives gift of sweet life away.
Let no one do that which would destroy the life of another, although he should by so doing, lose his own life.

Kural - 328
Though great the gain of good should seem, the wise
Will any gain by staughter won despise.
The advantage which might flow from destroying life in sacrifice, is dishonourable to the wise (who renounced the world), even although it should be said to be productive of great good.

Kural - 329
Whose trade is 'killing', always vile they show,
To minds of them who what is vileness know.
Men who destroy life are base men, in the estimation of those who know the nature of meanness.

Kural - 330
Who lead a loathed life in bodies sorely pained,
Are men, the wise declare, by guilt of slaughter stained.
(The wise) will say that men of diseased bodies, who live in degradation and in poverty, are those who separated the life from the body of animals (in a former birth).

Chapter. 34. Instability

Kural - 331
Lowest and meanest lore, that bids men trust secure,
In things that pass away, as things that shall endure!
That ignorance which considers those things to be stable which are not so, is dishonourable (to the wise).

Kural - 332
As crowds round dancers fill the hall, is wealth's increase;
Its loss, as throngs dispersing, when the dances cease.
The acquisition of wealth is like the gathering together of an assembly for a theatre; its expenditure is like the breaking up of that assembly.

Kural - 333
Unenduring is all wealth; if you wealth enjoy,
Enduring works in working wealth straightway employ.
Wealth is perishable; let those who obtain it immediately practise those (virtues) which are imperishable.

Kural - 334
As 'day' it vaunts itself; well understood, 'tis knife',
That daily cuts away a portion from thy life.
Time, which shows itself (to the ignorant) as if it were something (real) is in the estimation of the wise (only) a saw which cuts down life.

Kural - 335
Before the tongue lie powerless, 'mid the gasp of gurgling breath,
Arouse thyself, and do good deeds beyond the power of death.
Let virtuous deeds be done quickly, before the biccup comes making the tongue silent.

Kural - 336
Existing yesterday, today to nothing hurled!-
Such greatness owns this transitory world.
This world possesses the greatness that one who yesterday was is not today.

Kural - 337
Who know not if their happy lives shall last the day,
In fancies infinite beguile the hours away!
Innumerable are the thoughts which occupy the mind of (the unwise), who know not that they shall live another moment.

Kural - 338
Birds fly away, and leave the nest deserted bare;
Such is the short-lived friendship soul and body share.
The love of the soul to the body is like (the love of) a bird to its egg which it flies away from and leaves empty.

Kural - 339
Death is sinking into slumbers deep;
Birth again is waking out of sleep.
Death is like sleep; birth is like awaking from it.

Kural - 340
The soul in fragile shed as lodger courts repose:-
Is it because no home's conclusive rest it knows?
It seems as if the soul, which takes a temporary shelter in a body, had not attained a home.

Chapter. 35. Renunciation

Kural - 341
From whatever, aye, whatever, man gets free,
From what, aye, from that, no more of pain hath he!
Whatever thing, a man has renounced, by that thing; he cannot suffer pain.

Kural - 342
'Renunciation' made- ev'n here true pleasures men acquire;
'Renounce' while time is yet, if to those pleasures you aspire.
After a man has renounced (all things), there will still be many things in this world (which he may enjoy); if he should desire them, let him, while it is time abandon. (the world).

Kural - 343
'Perceptions of the five' must all expire;-
Relinquished in its order each desire
Let the five senses be destroyed; and at the same time, let everything be abandoned that (the ascetic) has (formerly) desired.

Kural - 344
'Privation absolute' is penance true;
'Possession' brings bewilderment anew.
To be altogether destitute is the proper condition of those who perform austerities; if they possess anything, it will change (their resolution) and bring them back to their confused state.

Kural - 345
To those who sev'rance seek from being's varied strife,
Flesh is burthen sore; what then other bonds of life?
What means the addition of other things those who are attempting to cut off (future) births, when even their body is too much (for them).

Kural - 346
Who kills conceit that utters 'I' and 'mine',
Shall enter realms above the powers divine.
He who destroys the pride which says "I", "mine" will enter a world which is difficult even to the Gods to attain.

Kural - 347
Who cling to things that cling and eager clasp,
Griefs cling to them with unrelaxing grasp.
Sorrows will never let go their hold of those who give not up their hold of desire.

Kural - 348
Who thoroughly 'renounce' on highest height are set;
The rest bewildered, lie entangled in the net.
Those who have entirely renounced (all things and all desire) have obtained (absorption into God); all others wander in confusion, entangled in the net of (many) births.

Kural - 349
When that which clings falls off, severed is being's tie;
All else will then be seen as instability.
At the moment in which desire has been abandoned, (other) births will be cut off; when that has not been done, instability will be seen.

Kural - 350
Cling thou to that which He, to Whom nought clings, hath bid thee cling,
Cling to that bond, to get thee free from every clinging thing.
Desire the desire of Him who is without desire; in order to renounce desire, desire that desire.

Chapter. 36. Knowledge of the True

Kural - 351
Of things devoid of truth as real things men deem;-
Cause of degraded birth the fond delusive dream!
Inglorious births are produced by the confusion (of mind) which considers those things to be real which are not real.

Kural - 352
Darkness departs, and rapture springs to men who see,
The mystic vision pure, from all delusion free.
A clear, undimmed vision of things will deliver its possessors from the darkness of future births, and confer the felicity (of heaven).

Kural - 353
When doubts disperse, and mists of error roll
Away, nearer is heav'n than earth to sage's soul.
Heaven is nearer than earth to those men of purified minds who are freed from from doubt.

Kural - 354
Five-fold perception gained, what benefits accrue
To them whose spirits lack perception of the true?
Even those who have all the knowledge which can be attained by the five senses, will derive no benefit from it, if they are without a knowledge of the true nature of things.

Kural - 355
Whatever thing, of whatsoever kind it be,
'Tis wisdom's part in each the very thing to see.
(True) knowledge is the perception concerning every thing of whatever kind, that that thing is the true thing.

Kural - 356
Who learn, and here the knowledge of the true obtain,
Shall find the path that hither cometh not again.
They, who in this birth have learned to know the True Being, enter the road which returns not into this world.

Kural - 357
The mind that knows with certitude what is, and ponders well,
Its thoughts on birth again to other life need not to dwell.
Let it not be thought that there is another birth for him whose mind having thoroughly considered (all it has been taught) has known the True Being.

Kural - 358
When folly, cause of births, departs; and soul can view
The truth of things, man's dignity- 'tis wisdom true.
True knowledge consists in the removal of ignorance; which is (the cause of) births, and the perception of the True Being who is (the bestower of) heaven.

Kural - 359
The true 'support' who knows- rejects 'supports' he sought before-
Sorrow that clings all destroys, shall cling to him no more.
He who so lives as to know Him who is the support of all things and abandon all desire, will be freed from the evils which would otherwise cleave to him and destroy (his efforts after absorption).

Kural - 360
When lust and wrath and error's triple tyranny is o'er,
Their very names for aye extinct, then pain shall be no more.
If the very names of these three things, desire, anger, and confusion of mind, be destroyed, then will also perish the evils (which flow from them).

Chapter. 37. The Extirpation of Desire

Kural - 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.

Kural - 362
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.

Kural - 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.

Kural - 364
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.

Kural - 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.

Kural - 366
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.

Kural - 367
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.

Kural - 368
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.

Kural - 369
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.

Kural - 370
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.