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Part I: On Virtue

Section I: Prologue

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Chapter 30: Truthfulness

Verse 298
A stream of water pours on a person as he bathes his body. A stream of golden light bathes a man of truth.

TAKA Presents the Tirukural

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Weaver's Wisdom

Verse 291

What is truthfulness? It is speaking words
which are totally free from harmful effects.

Verse 292

Even falsehood is of the nature of truth
if it renders good results, free from fault.

Verse 293

Let one not speak as true what he knows to be false,
for his conscience will burn him when he has lied.

Verse 294

One who lives by truth in his own heart
truly lives in the hearts of all people.

Verse 295

Those who speak only truth from the heart
surpass even penitents and philanthropists.

Verse 296

No prestige surpasses the absence of falsehood;
all other virtues flow from it effortlessly.

Verse 297

Not lying, and merely not lying, is beneficial
for those who cannot or will not practice other virtues.

Verse 298

Water is sufficient to cleanse the body,
but truthfulness alone can purify the mind.

Verse 299

Not all lamps give light.
The lamp of not-lying is the learned man's light.

Verse 300

Among all great truths we have ever beheld,
not a single one rivals the goodness of telling the truth.