Chapter 85: Ignorance

Verse 847
A farmer has climbed out on the branch of a tree, but he is sitting on the wrong side and is about to injure himself. The owner of the orchard rushes up to warn him and urge him not to proceed.

TAKA Presents the Tirukural

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

Verse 841

Dearth of wisdom is the direst destitution.
Other poverties the world deems less impoverishing.

Verse 842

If any merit is gained when a fool gives a gift, however gladly,
it is due to the recipient’s past penance and nothing else.

Verse 843

The suffering that ignorant men inflict upon themselves
can hardly be contrived by their enemies.

Verse 844

What is stupidity, you ask? It is the conceit
that dares to declare, “I am wise.”

Verse 845

He who pretends to knowledge he does not possess
raises doubts about the things he really knows.

Verse 846

Fools follow a perverse path, clothing their well-formed naked body,
yet never thinking to conceal their deformed mind.

Verse 847

Neglecting valuable advice, an ignorant man
becomes the cause of his own misery.

Verse 848

That soul who neither follows another’s orders nor fathoms what to
do himself creates nothing but torment until he leaves this life.

Verse 849

As an unseeing man sees only the ways of his own mind, whoever
attempts to open the eyes of those who will not see is himself blind.

Verse 850

He who denies as false what the world declares
to be true is deemed to be an earthly demon.