'ON VIRTUE' - In Praise Of God - Kural - 2

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1. Katrratanaa laaya payanenkol; vaalarivan
   Natrraal tolaar rennin.

Learning and scholarship are of no avail if they do not lead
One to worship at the wise one's divine feet.

Education must make one think of God. Parimelalagar's idea is that the concept of reaching God's feet is the culmination of all birth, which can be achieved only by right learning and appropriate conduct in keeping with such learning. But the end of all learning is universally accepted to lead one to Godhead, for knowledge leads to steadfastness. 'The steadfast, having controlled the senses, sits focused on 'Me' as the Supreme.' (Gita 2, 61).

In this respect these Kural lines are of import, similar to the Biblical lines, that ' Thou shalt love the Lord, thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, with all thy mind and with all thy strength'. This is also the natural thing to do, for the Psalmist says, 'the human soul thirsts for God like the thirsty land'. (Psalms 143:6). This is also what the Holy Koran lays down when it says ' we have no knowledge saving what thou has taught us'. (Chapter 1, Rukoo 3). The right knowledge, therefore, would take one to God. Thus the purpose of all education is categorically laid down here as 'the holy one of knowing God and worshipping him'.

The expression 'Vaalarivan' refers to God, of 'pure intelligence'. Kambar, in later days, has adopted the same expression to describe God in a certain context in his classic (Kamba Ramayanam, Thadagai - 3 Velvi 21).