Tirukkural-On Virtue-Good Reputation-Kural 234

If one earns an outstanding reputation on earth,Knowing people will honour him and not the Gods.

If we have men on earth, who, by their service, sacrifice and all-consuming neighbourly love, establish a lasting reputation, discerning people will worship them. We have had such men as Gandhiji, even in our own life-time, a person, whose renown certainly went beyond what Valluvar envisaged in Kural 50. That is why Einstein said of Gandhiji, 'generations to come will scarce believe such a man in flesh and blood walked the face of this earth'. It is about such people that Thirikadukam says:

Mannin mael vaan pugaz nataanum

(Thirikadukam-16)