Tirukkural-On Virtue-The Importance Of Virtue-Kural 39

39. Aratthan varuvatae inbam matrrellaam
Puratha pukalum ila

Virtuous deeds alone give true happiness;
All else is inglorious and bring about unhappiness.

Pure joy or genuine happiness can only be the outcome of following the path of virtue, for which the pre-requisite is a pure heart (Kural 34). Thomas A Kempis in the Imitation of Christ, expresses the same view.

Even in family life, real happiness comes only as a result of righteous conduct. Valluvar's concept of 'Inbam' is that which arises out of a love-life regulated, ennobled and sublimated by virtue. That is why Pope, who first hesitated to study 'Kamathupal' (On Love), became Valluvar's firm devotee.

It was such a thought, which probably prompted Sekkilar to exclaim while describing the beauty of Paravaiyar, 'Karpagathin Poongombo'.

The great German poet Goethe agrees with this idea when he says,

'Only the heart without a stain knows perfect ease', and the last lines of his Faust, explains the relation between love and heaven thus, 'The indescribable, here it is done; The woman soul leadeth us, upward on'.