Thirukkural-On Virtue-Elimination Of Desire-Kural 364

Add as a preferred source on Google

Purity consists in the freedom from all desire,
Which comes from the relentless pursuit of Truth.

With the pursuit of Truth comes absence of desire, which leads to purity and also ultimate release. This translation is based on Manakudavar"s, but Parimelalagar would construe 'Thuuymai" as meaning Release. Valluvar emphasises the importance of the pursuit of Truth, just as much as Socrates, Plato and Aristotle. If the desire for the Truth is strong enough, according to Valluvar, the renunciation of all worldly desires comes easy.

One recollects in this connection the famous incident of the young man who asked Socrates 'What is truth and how to find it", and of how the great sage pushed his head into a tub of water, till the youth struggled for breath with great effort and got himself released. Then Socrates told him, 'when your need to find out the truth is as much as your need for air as just now, you will find it out soon enough". But most of us, like Jesting Pilate, would just ask 'What is Truth?" and not wait for an answer.

The Gita lists out 'Purity of heart" and 'Truth" as two of the attributes of the Divine state in Slokas 1 and 2 of Chapter 16. obviously, therefore, when a human being has cultivated and acquired these attributes as dominant traits, he would have reached the stage of absence of desire, realization of Self and Godhead.