KURAL: ON LOVE
The ethical thinking of Thiruvalluvar on love runs parallel to the teaching of the Gospels. Hence he sounds very much Christian, though he lived, much before Christ event.
True love does not expect anything in return. Because the very nature of such a love, gets expression without any precondition. Valluvar makes use of an apt comparison to bring out this spontaneity of love:
In what way can the Earth recompense the clouds?
Which, without any thought of return,
Shower benevolence upon the Earth. (Kural 211)
The Divine Poet places love as the top most of all the virtues. For him, love is the highest manifestation of human spirit. And so, he urges every one, to live in accordance with love, which is the primary virtue accessible to man. He picks up peculiar imageries, to convey this message forcefully:
Existence has its root
In the nature of love,
And those who have no love
Are bony frame works clad with skin. (Kural 80)
Existence without love
Is like, sprouting of a dead tree
In the barren dry land. (Kural 78)
Pure love is self-sacrificing, and does not posses anything for itself. Only an empty love hunts for everything to fill the vacuum. But the sacrificial-love finds joy in giving, till the last. This psychological aspect of love is beautifully expressed in the following Kural:
The loveless to themselves
Belong alone;
The loving are others’
To the very bone. (Kural 72)
G. Robert John Kennedy, I Theology.
* This is published in Observer 2000-2001, the wall magazine of the Theology section, St Joseph’s Seminary, Mangalore.
KURAL: ON FRIENDSHIP
The social nature of the human being demands to relate to others. This reaching the other (friendship) dissolves the rigidities of the isolated self and forces new perspectives. Thiruvalluvar understanding the necessity of friendship investigates in depth, the psychology and the dynamics of it. Thus he pictures the multifaceted dimensions of friendship in 5 chapters of 50 Kurals.
Valluvar seems to have good rapport with many sages and philosophers in his hometown – Mylapore (City of Peacock), a place of historical importance, at present a part of Chennai. He portrays the delight of having friendship with men of virtues as:
As the pleasures of learning increases
By constant application;
So the friendship of the worthy increases
By constant contact. (Kural 783)
He highlights the importance and the nature of friendship saying:
Friend from ruin saves
In way of virtue keeps
In troublous time, weeps
With him who weeps. (Kural 787)
Even as your hand rushes to hold your dhoti
When it slips down from your waist,
Friendship rushes to your rescue
When you are in grief. (Kural 788)
What is the criterion for true friendship? He thinks, that it is tested best in adversity, for most friends cluster around in prosperity, and desert in adversity:
There is some good even about adversity
For it gives you a measuring rod with which
You may unstintingly measure you real friends. (Kural 796)
G. Robert John Kennedy, I Theology.
* This is published in Observer 2000-2001, the wall magazine of the Theology section, St Joseph’s Seminary, Mangalore.
KURAL: ON SENSUAL LOVE
Inbathupal, the third section of Thirukkural, with 25 chapters of 250 Kurals deals with sensual love which is divided into two sub sections as: Kalavial – refers to the premarital love; Karpial – refers to the marital love.
Inbathupal is utterly different in content from the Kama Sastras of Sanskrit, for the latter deals with an objective and scientific analysis of sex and sexual poses. Where as the former, like the Song of Solomon contains a highly poetic exposition of the sensual love and its delicate temperaments are set in different dramatic and lyrical situation.
Valluvar himself lived a happy marital life with his wife Vasuki. He derives a serene satisfaction, drawing from tender portraits of lovers and gives poetic expression to it:
Can wine which intoxicates only when drunk,
Intoxicate, like love,
At mere sight? (Kural 1090)
Softer than flower is love
But a few,
Can indulge in its delicacy. (Kural 1289)
Valluvar brings out the different moods of premarital love, with great intensity. The hero of many battles falls in love with a girl. He observes his ebbing away of bravery at the sight of the girl, and so with a perplexed mind, he pours out:
My majestic manhood,
At which my foes in the battlefield tremble,
How does it break down at the sight of this girl,
With the luminous forehead! (Kural 1088)
A love perceives that when she is away from her lover, she thinks only of his faults, on the contrary when she sees him, all his faults melt away. Such a psychological paradox is nicely treated:
When he is in my presence
I see nothing in him that is fault;
But when he goes out of my presence
I see nothing in him that is not faulty. (Kural 1286)
The climax of marital life is realized in the intoxicated intimacy between a man and a woman. It is presented beautifully by fine feelings that are stimulated through the five senses at a single moment in the physical union:
In one simultaneous moment,
She gives the pleasure,
Of the five senses – touching,
Tasting, seeing, smelling, hearing. (Kural 1101)
G. Robert John Kennedy, I Theology.
* This is published in Observer 2000-2001, the wall magazine of the Theology section, St Joseph’s Seminary, Mangalore.
KURAL: ON THE USE OF WORDS
Words have built up nations; made empires to crumble down; consoled people; wounded badly; given hope; disfigured the dignity of the human beings; … What a power that logos has!
Thiruvalluvar understanding this binary nature of “words”, exhorts the readers to prefer the best, to the worst saying:
While pleasant words are available,
Using bitter words like discarding a sweet ripe fruit
And choosing a bitter unripe one. (Kural 100)
Valluvar brings out forcefully the effects of the choice of the evil words:
The wound may heal; though form a burning brand,
And be forgotten; but the wound never heals,
A burning tongue inflicts. (Kural 129)
He emphasizes the precise and discriminating use of words as a means of spiritual illumination. In the chapter of Eloquence, he says:
Utter not a word
Without making sure
There is no other word to beat it. (Kural 645)
He makes a declaration of his faith and calls upon speakers to cultivate reverence for words:
There is no greater virtue
And indeed no greater wealth
Than the ability to use words
With the fullest cognizance of their power. (Kural 644)
He devotes one whole chapter of 10 Kurals, to the paramount need for abstaining from uttering unproductive and empty words:
The one who, applauds empty words,
Is miscalled a man;
He must be called the chaff among men. (Kural 196)
G. Robert John Kennedy, I Theology
* This is published in Observer 2000-2001, the wall magazine of the Theology section, St Joseph’s Seminary, Mangalore.
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