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Tirukkural-On Virtue-The Importance Of Virtue-Kural-35

By Staff
The Four Vices

35. Alukkaaru avaavekkuli innaccol naankum
llukkaa iyanradhuu aram
..

Thoughts and deeds free of envy, greed, wrath and
bitter words along, constitute virtue.

The implication is that there can be no real virtue, where any of these four evils of wrath, envy, lust and harsh speech are present. Virtue in man and these vices are mutually exclusive, as it were.

Anger and lust are referred to by the Gita in (16,21) as two of the three gates of hell, the third one being greed. Kahlil Gibran listed wrath and avarice among the four things a ruler should banish from his realm; the other two are falsehood and violence.

The Acharakovai refers to men of virtue who have eschewed these and related vices, as 'Aiyandheer Kaatchiyar' (i.e.,) savants with clear vision, free from all earthly vices, doubts and illusions.

Story first published: Friday, November 28, 2008, 14:03 [IST]
Read more about: bhagavad gita thirukural