Many years ago when I was first in Sri Lanka--that was in 1949--I made a vow to bring together the best of the East and the best of the West. Living with a traditional Saivite family that informally adopted me in those early days, I was introduced to the Tirukural. I found it to be one of the most important scriptures in all of Asia, so enchanting and so very practical. It contains wondrously no-nonsense insights on life, teaching us how to deal with the various feelings and circumstances that we encounter in our internal life and our interactions with others. In this sense, the Tirukural is the most accessible and relevant sacred text I know, applying to everyday matters and common concerns.

The Tirukural is a 2,200-year-old South Indian Dravidian classic on ethical living. Not unaware that there are advocates of later dates (from ca 200 bce down to ca 400 ce) we honor here the prevalent Tamil tradition. Its 1,330 verses were written by a Tamil weaver sage named Tiruvalluvar. I have named his work Weaver's Wisdom. It is called Tirukural in the Tamil language. Tiru means "holy" or "sacred," and kural describes a brief verse or literary couplet.

The poetic masterpiece you are holding in your hands is one of the most revered scriptures in South India, where every child learns to recite its verses by heart. Hindus there regard it with the same reverence that Buddhists regard the Buddha's Dhammapada and Christians regard Jesus' "Sermon on the Mount." In fact, other religions also claim it as their own. The Jains proclaim it theirs, saying it expresses precisely their ideals of nonviolence, of dharma, of asceticism, vegetarianism and other aspects of Jainism. The Christians have argued that the Tirukural is so profound and filled with such compassion that it must have been influenced by the Christian missionaries who, their legends say, came to South India in the first century ce (300 years after native historians assert it was written). Many are surprised to find that the Tirukural is still sworn upon in the courts of law in South India's state of Tamil Nadu, just as the Christian Bible and Muslim Koran are sworn on elsewhere. Just as the Sikhs worship their holy text, Adi Granth, devout Hindus venerate with a sacred ceremony, called puja, the weaver's scripture in temples and home shrines. Albert Schweitzer, medical missionary and Christian theologian in Africa, considered it one of the grandest achievements of the human mind, writing, "Like the Buddha and the Bhagavad Gita, the Kural desires inner freedom from the world and a mind free from hatred. You find the quintessence of the best gems of thoughts in the Kural, a living ethic of love and liberation." Indeed, many claim that the Tirukural is man's earliest statement of the ostensibly contemporary ecumenical tenets, for it is free of the dogmatic bias that commonly attends religious scriptures. The Father of modern India, Mahatma Gandhi, took to these verses in his own spiritual life, telling his people, "Only a few of us know the name of Tiruvalluvar. The North Indians do not know the name of the great saint. There is none who has given such a treasure of wisdom like him."

One of the hallmarks of Saint Tiruvalluvar's genius was his ability to deftly define and subtly delineate Sanatana Dharma, the Eternal Spiritual Path, to all men equally, never limiting his audience to a sectarian view. Even when he speaks directly of God, Whom he addresses as Adi Bhagavan, Iraivan and Kadavul--ancient Tamil words for Supreme God Siva--the weaver's broad heart praises not the God of this faith or that, but sings his panegyric to "God Primordial," "the Incomparable One," "the Gracious One" or "the Compassionate One." In other words, everyone's God.

Having honored the Worshipful One, the weaver then praises rain, for without rain's gift of life all the human experience would be impossible. The third chapter speaks of renunciation, sannyasa, for to him the renunciate monk is the most noble exemplar of humanity, the highest of souls, the minister of Sanatana Dharma, nowadays called Hinduism in English, Indu Samayam in Tamil, Hindu Dharma in Sanskrit, Hindouisme in French, Hinduismo in Spanish, Religione Hindu in Italian, and Hinduismus in German. He exalts renunciation as a way of life opposed to that of the householder, encouraging ardent souls seeking the realization of their own True Being, to take up their faith with vigor and to live the detached, selfless life of a renunciate--noninvolvement in the joys and sorrows of the world, which he also describes in minute detail in other chapters. Without giving us a hint of what he is up to, the weaver has thus defined in his first three chapters the three fundamental dimensions of Saiva Siddhanta philosophy--God, world and soul, known in Tamil as Pati, pasam and pasu. It is indicative of his subtle literary style that Tiruvalluvar begins the very first verse with the first letter of the Tamil alphabet, "A," and ends the last line of verse 1,330 with the final letter, "N," quietly informing us that he has covered all human concerns, from A to Z.

In Tamil literature, kural names the very difficult and disciplined venpa meter in which the verses were written. Each verse is extremely short, containing only two lines of seven measures. In fact, it is the shortest form of stanza in the Tamil language. In many ways these couplets are similar to the Sanskrit shloka. The scripture consists of 133 chapters with each chapter elucidating a different aspect of human virtue or human fault. There are ten couplets per chapter, making a total of 1,330 couplets.

Although it has been translated into English by many scholars, the Tirukural has never been widely known in the Western world. There is a similar work, written in modern times by the Syrian-born American mystic Kahlil Gibran (1883-1931), called The Prophet, which has become a beloved classic. Everyone knows and loves this masterful work. The Prophet parallels the Tirukural in many ways. Both books speak in profound yet understandable terms of love and friendship, of health and death, of joy and sorrow. It is our hope that the Tirukural--Weaver's Wisdom--will find its place beside The Prophet and be known by the wider world as the gem that it is, showing how the Tamil Saivites have, to this very day, maintained their heritage, rich culture and religious fervor.

In the many days to come, the world will acknowledge this great people and their lofty culture, a way of life nurtured in the womb of Saiva Samayam, Saivite Hinduism, the resilient religion that has stood the test of time, that has survived invasions by alien cultures, faiths and imposed systems of law and government, that has survived efforts from outsiders to infiltrate, dilute and destroy their religion, culture and language, that has survived poverty, over-population and modernization. It is a faith that lives as proudly and profoundly today as it did perhaps ten thousand years ago. What other culture can make such a claim?

Much of what the weaver writes revolves around the home, which resonates well with today's calls to return to traditional family values. He speaks of the faithful husband and the devoted wife, of the upright children they raise and the joys they experience, of the value of relationship and how to nurture and sustain it. He speaks of age and its merits, of the importance of honoring the elderly, of caring for and not abandoning them.

Nor is the weaver a stranger to difficult issues that still perplex us. He speaks of killing and of the king's duty to execute murderers. He speaks of alcohol addiction, of the debilitating effects of gambling, of adultery and the tragic loss of a life lived in poverty or lazy indifference. He guides us in matters of education, and warns against the life-sapping effect of lack of knowledge. He speaks of a strong military, of spies and of advisors with personal agendas, of fools and their ways and wastes. He knows of the wiles of real enemies and has much to tell modern man about overcoming opposition, about being wise against antagonists' crafty ways and thus surviving the attacks of foes. He speaks of making money and of how money is squandered and lost. He explores purity, kindness, humility, right thought, right action, friendship and all forms of virtuous living, and he boldly offers stern warning as to the consequence of base, sinful thoughts and actions. With great force, he decries the agonies caused by meat-eating and commends traditional Hindu vegetarianism. All along the way we encounter his humor, which he uses to great effect and which makes us laugh even as it points to our most stubborn flaws and comic foibles.

Hinduism's four legitimate goals of human life are dharma, artha, kama and moksha, known in English as virtue, wealth, love and liberation. In the Tirukural, Saint Tiruvalluvar spoke in depth on the first three. Under the heading of virtue, he discusses the ways of the householder and the monk, focusing on good conduct and its opposite. In the chapters on wealth he speaks of business, government, politics and the building of the nation. In the final twenty-five chapters on love (not included in this edition), he discusses the relationships of men and women. Valluvar also discussed the fourth and final goal of life, liberation from rebirth, especially in the chapters on the way of the renunciate. As the four Vedas outline the path to salvation by delineation of the destination, the Tirukural carefully explains how to live while treading the path to that ultimate goal. Along with the Tirumantiram (composed by the great Tamil mystic, Rishi Tirumular, during the same period) which explains the means to Self Realization, spiritual yogas and liberation, these two classics form a complete whole, covering dharma, artha, kama and moksha.

The Tirukural is Tiruvalluvar's only known work; and though it is relatively short compared to such sacred texts as the Dhammapada or the Adi Granth, it was sufficient to bring renown to a simple and highly observant weaver, making him a venerated sage and lawgiver of the ancient Tamil Dravidian people. The Kural's relative brevity is also its strength, as is its immense practicality. Here is no esoteric doctrine, no other-worldly speculation, but adages for practical daily life in every age, for mankind does not change all that much from era to era. It is my hope and aspiration that this masterpiece finds its way into your heart.

In his work, Tiruvalluvar chose a topic--such as children, friendship or avoidance of anger--and gave us ten different couplets on the one subject. To properly understand his perspective, all ten couplets must be read, for they are like facets of a gem--each reflecting the light of his understanding slightly differently, and the richness of his comprehension. Not infrequently, the subject of one chapter's last verse will serve as the transition to the next chapter's first, like one thread tied to another to continue the weaving. In the opening few verses he tends to focus on the subject at hand, while moving in the latter verses into more specific matters and admonishing against failure to apply noble ideals found in the verses above. In other words, he gets tougher as the verses progress down the page.

It has been explained to us that the saint spent the fullness of his life quietly observing, simply observing, the human condition. Then, toward the end of his life, he was asked to speak out and share the wisdom others in the community knew he possessed. This book, comprising 108 chapters, was his response. I hope you will allow Saint Tiruvalluvar's insights to spark your own intuition and reveal from within yourself the laws which he, too, discovered within himself. Do not look upon this scripture as something "out there." Meditation and reflection will reveal that its knowledge lies within, vibrantly alive and dynamically real. It is impossible not to be moved by the broad compassion and the direct discernment of this holy man. Let him enrich your life as you journey along this Eternal Path, the Sanatana Dharma.

Alas, in Bharat yesterday and in the days of Tiruvalluvar, the art of weaving was a low-caste occupation. Valluvar was a member of a trade group, jati, certainly not accepted into the social circles of the higher castes. Still, the weavers' cloth was used extensively by the brahmins (the priestly caste), and the kshatriyas (the governing class), to adorn their bodies, and by, the vaishyas (the merchant caste), in bartering with other merchants. Yes, weavers were near the bottom of the social scale in India then, as today. It is interesting to note that this man who lived low in the social structure left a legacy that makes all Tamils proud, that shines among human endeavors, and outshines virtually every high-caste neighbour he had.