<!-- if it exists in the original book:

Part I: On Virtue

Section I: Prologue

-->

Chapter 15: Not Coveting Another's Wife

Verse 148
A man is talking to a friend who is seated on the porch of their house with his wife. In order to be proper and not covet her, he is casting his gaze at her feet and not into her eyes. The clear light of his aura reflects his purity of thought.

TAKA Presents the Tirukural

You can access the entire text, in Tamil and English here:
Weaver's Wisdom

Verse 141

Those who know virtue's laws and marital rights
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 be mountainous, what good is it
if, without the minutest concern, he takes another's wife?

Verse 145

A man who seduces another man's wife, knowing she is easy,
suffers a shame that neither dies nor diminishes.

Verse 146

Hatred, sin, fear and disgrace--these four
never forsake the man who commits adultery.

Verse 147

He is decreed a worthy householder who holds
no desire for the womanly charms of another's wife.

Verse 148

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

Verse 149

In a world encircled by the awesome sea, to whom do 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.