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The Thiru Kural
Couplets 101 - 200

Gratitude | Impartiality | Possession of Self-Control | Possession of Virtuous Conduct  | Not Coveting Another's Wife | Possession of Forbearance | Avoidance of Envy | Avoidance of Covetousness | Avoidance of Backbiting | Avoidance of Pointless Speech

Gratitude

Verse 101 Heaven and earth are scant repayment For help rendered where none was received.

Verse 102 A kindness done in the hour of need may itself be small, But in worth it exceeds the whole world.

Verse 103 When help is rendered by weighing the receiver's need and not The donor's return reward, its goodness grows greater than the sea.

Verse 104 While aid may outwardly seem as puny as a mustard seed, The knowing will deem it as imposing as a towering palm.

Verse 105 Help rendered another cannot be measured by the extent of the Assistance imparted. Its true measure is the worth of the recipient.

Verse 106 Never forget your fellowship with unsullied souls, Nor forsake your friendship with those who aided in adversity.

Verse 107 For seven lives in seven bodies the grateful will remember honor in Memory of Friends who annihilated quelled their anguish and affliction.

Verse 108 It is improper to ever forget a kindness. But it is good to forget at once an injury received.

Verse 109 The deadliest injury is effaced the moment The mind recalls a single kindness received from the injurer.

Verse 110 Having slain every kind of goodness, one may yet escape, But there is no escape for those who slay let gratitude die.

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Impartiality

Verse 111 Justice may be called good when it acts impartially Toward enemies, strangers and friends.

Verse 112 The wealth of those who possess justice will not perish; Rather it will be posterity's pleasing soothing security.

Verse 113 However prosperous it may seem, all wealth gained By loss of rightness must be relinquished that very day.

Verse 114 In their offspring one may doubtlessly discern Who are the just and who the unjust.

Verse 115 Adversity and prosperity never cease to exist. To keep the Mind unswervingly just under both is the ornament of the wise.

Verse 116 When his heart forsakes fairness and his deeds turn depraved, A man realizes deep within himself, "I am ruined."

Verse 117 Though a man is perilously impoverished ruinously destitute, if he Remains just, the world will not regard him as poor.

Verse 118 To incline to neither side like the poised beam of the balance scale Which rests level and weighs impartially is the ornament of the wise.

Verse 119 Speech uttered without bias is integrity, Provided no unspoken bias hides in the heart.

Verse 120 Those businessmen will prosper whose business Protects as their own the interests of others.

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Possession of Self-Control

Verse 121 Self-control will place a man among the Gods, But the While lack of it will lead him into deepest darkness.

Verse 122 Guard your self-control as a precious treasure, For there is no greater wealth in life than this.

Verse 123 Comprehending and acquiring self-control Confers upon one the esteem of wise men.

Verse 124 More imposing than a mountain is the greatness of the man he who, Steadfast in domestic life, has attained self-control.

Verse 125 Humility is a precious quality in all people, But it becomes a priceless possession in the wealthy.

Verse 126 Like a tortoise withdrawing five limbs into its shell, those who Restrain the five senses in one life, will find safe shelter for seven.

Verse 127 Whatever you may fail to guard, guard well your tongue, For flawed speech unfailingly invokes anguish and affliction.

Verse 128 By a single word of injury Do all a man's virtues lose their goodness.

Verse 129 The wound caused by fire heals in its time; But the burn seared in by an inflamed tongue will never heal.

Verse 130 Virtue will wait in the streets to meet a man Possessed of learning, self-disciplined and subduing anger.

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Possession of Virtuous Conduct

Verse 131 Virtuous conduct leads a man to eminent greatness, Therefore, it should be guarded as more precious than life itself.

Verse 132 In your striving, strive to preserve good conduct. In your deliberations, discover it is your staunchest ally.

Verse 133 Morality is the birthright of high families, While immoral conduct's legacy is lowly birth.

Verse 134 If a brahmin forgets the Vedas, he can relearn them. But if he falls from virtue, his high birth is forever effaced.

Verse 135 Prosperity is not for the envious, Nor is greatness for men of impure conduct.

Verse 136 The firm-minded never slacken in upholding virtuous conduct, For they know the miseries brought on by such neglect.

Verse 137 By honest conduct one achieves honorable eminence, While corrupt conduct brings one nothing but blame.

Verse 138 Good conduct is the seed in virtue's field, Wicked conduct's harvest is never-ending pain.

Verse 139 Men who conduct themselves virtuously Are incapable of voicing harmful words, even forgetfully.

Verse 140 Those who cannot live in harmony with the world, Though they have learned many things, are still ignorant.

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Not Coveting Another's Wife

Verse 141 Those who know well virtue's laws and property's rights Do not Never indulge in the folly of desiring another man's wife.

Verse 142 Among those who stand outside virtue, there is no greater fool Than he who stands with a lustful heart outside another's gate.

Verse 143 No different from the dead are those who Wickedly desire the wife of a friend.

Verse 144 Though a man's measure is mountainous, what good is it If he takes another's wife without the minutest concern?

Verse 145 A man who seduces another man's wife, knowing she is easy, Suffers a shame which neither dies nor diminishes.

Verse 146 Hatred, sin, fear and disgrace-these four Will never relinquish the man who commits adultery.

Verse 147 He is decreed a worthy householder Who holds no desire for the womanliness of another's wife.

Verse 148 The noble chivalry that does not look upon another's wife Is not mere virtue-it is saintly conduct.

Verse 149 In a world imperiled by the fearsome sea, to whom will good things Belong? To men never impassioned to caress a married woman.

Verse 150 Though a man deserts virtue and indulges in vice, He keeps some decency by not wanting another's wife's womanliness.

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Possession of Forbearance

Verse 151 Even as the Earth bears those who dig into her, To bear with those who revile us is the foremost of virtues.

Verse 152 It is always good to endure injuries done to you, But to forget them is even better.

Verse 153 It is impoverished poverty to be inhospitable to guests. It is stalwart strength to be patient with the foolish fools.

Verse 154 Desiring that his greatness should never cease, Let a man's conduct foster forbearance.

Verse 155 Worthless are those who injure others vengefully, While those who stoically endure are like stored gold.

Verse 156 The gratification of the vengeful lasts only for a day, But the glory of the forbearing lasts until the end of time.

Verse 157 Though unjustly afflicted, it is best to suffer the suffering And refrain from unrighteous response.

Verse 158 Let a man conquer by forbearance Those who in their arrogance have wronged him.

Verse 159 Those who patiently endure the caustic rude remarks of the insolent Possess the ascetic's remarkable exceptional rare purity.

Verse 160 Great are those who suffer fasting's hardships, But they are surpassed by those who suffer hard words spoken.

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Avoidance of Envy

Verse 161 Consider the heart that is free from all envy As virtuous conduct itself.

Verse 162 Among the many precious things a man may acquire, None is greater than a nature free from envy toward all.

Verse 163 He who is jealous instead of joyous of another's wealth Must not desire, they say, wealth and virtue of his own.

Verse 164 Envy will never cause him to commit wrongful deeds Who rightly fathoms the painful disgrace which follows such offenses.

Verse 165 A man's own envy is foe enough to forge his ruin, Even though he has no other enemies.

Verse 166 He who begrudges another's bounty, Will behold the death of his naked and starving kindred.

Verse 167 Fortune's Goddess, intolerant of impatient with envious men, Introduces them to her sister Misfortune and goes away.

Verse 168 The wicked one called envy consumes this world's wealth Then consigns men to those worlds of hellish fire.

Verse 169 It is something fascinating to ponder that good men may be poor While the envious-hearted prosper.

Verse 170 There are no envious men who have risen to prosperity. There are no men free from envy who have fallen from it.

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Avoidance of Covetousness

Verse 171 In the any attempt to wrongly gain another's wealth, A man loses his family's future and his own faultlessness.

Verse 172 Those who deem injustice shameful never commit Guilt-yielding deeds in their desire for profitable gains.

Verse 173 Those who seek immortal bliss will not succumb To immoral deeds which follow desire for fleeting delights.

Verse 174 Those who have conquered their senses and whose sight is unclouded By baseness will not covet others' wealth even in destitution.

Verse 175 Of what avail is subtle and comprehensive learning, If a man in his covetousness still foolishly exploits others?

Verse 176 He who, desiring wealth, contrives to acquire it wrongly will perish Despite his desire for grace and his steadfastness in duty.

Verse 177 Do not seek the fortune that greed gathers, For its fruit is bitter in the day of enjoyment.

Verse 178 To protect his own prosperity from decline One must not crave the property held by others.

Verse 179 Just as wise men know the goodness of non-coveting, So Fortune herself knows their goodness and draws near.

Verse 180 There is a desire for another's possessions which is thoughtlessly destructive. There is a pride which, refusing to covet, is mindfully triumphant.

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Avoidance of Backbiting

Verse 181 Silent about virtue and swift to act wrongly, a man may yet still be called declared good who does not slander others.

Verse 182 More vile than violating virtue and committing crime Is slanderously sabotaging a man, then smiling to his face.

Verse 183 Virtue declares dying, not living, will bring better rewards To defamers who dissemble and deceive.

Verse 184 Though you speak unkind words to a man's face, Do not speak words behind his back heedless of consequent harm.

Verse 185 Though his words praise the virtuous life, A man's backbiting will betray his heart's insincerity.

Verse 186 If a man spreads tales of others' faults, His own worst faults will be exposed and spread.

Verse 187 Not knowing the companionable art of cheerful conversation, Men estrange even friends by their divisive discourse.

Verse 188 Fore men inclined to spread the faults of friends, What deadly harm would they not do to strangers?

Verse 189 Only because she weighs duty well does the Earth bear the weights Of those who watch for a man's departure to defame him.

Verse 190 If men perceived their own faults as they do the faults of others, Could misfortune ever come to them?

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Avoidance of Pointless Speech

Verse 191 Everyone despises a man who offends the masses With meaningless chatter.

Verse 192 Uttering useless words to the masses even worse Than committing unkindnesses toward companions.

Verse 193 A long and pointless discourse Itself declares to all the speaker's lack of worth.

Verse 194 Worthless words are doubly unprofitable. The assembled listeners' Enjoyment is lost, and the speaker's goodness disowned.

Verse 195 Prestige and popularity flee the best of men The moment they speak inane and useless words.

Verse 196 Do not call him a man who enjoys displaying his own empty words. Call him rather the chaff of men.

Verse 197 Let the wise, if they deem it necessary, speak even unpleasant words But it is good for them to refrain from pointless speech.

Verse 198 In search of extraordinary gains, the wise Will never speak trivial or ungainful words.

Verse 199 The wise, faultless and free from ignorance, Never speak pointless words, even forgetfully.

Verse 200 In your speaking, say only that which is purposeful. Do not utter words which lack purpose.

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