Tirukkural-On Virtue-Good Reputation-Kural 234

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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)