Tirukural – Chapter 8
Chapter 8: Possessing Love
Verse 74
A boy and a girl play at the beach. Their friendship grows with age as they study and share meals together. Their love grows from that friendship. They live happily the rest of their lives.
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Weaver’s Wisdom
Verse 71
Can any lock keep love confined within,
when the loving heart’s tiny tears escape and confess it?
Verse 72
The unloving belong only to themselves,
but the loving belong to others to their very bones.
Verse 73
They say it is to know union with love
that the soul takes union with the body.
Verse 74
Love makes one affectionate toward all,
and affection affords the priceless treasure of friendship.
Verse 75
They say love’s greatness is this: it yields to good families
worldly happiness here and heavenly bliss hereafter.
Verse 76
The uninformed say love abides with virtuous souls,
unaware that love is also friend to those immersed in vice.
Verse 77
As the blazing sun dries up a boneless worm,
so does virtue scorch a loveless being.
Verse 78
Life without love in the heart
is like a sapless tree in a barren desert.
Verse 79
What good is a body perfect in outer ways,
if inwardly it is impaired by lack of love?
Verse 80
With love enshrined in the heart, one truly lives.
Without it, the body is but bones encased in skin.
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