Renunciation

by Tiruvalluvar

English version by P. S. Sundaram
Original Language Tamil

As one by one we give up
We get freer and freer of pain.

Renounce early if you seek joy;
Great gladness awaits the ascetic.

Control the five senses and give up
All longings at once.

To give up all behoves the ascetic:
Attachment deludes.

When on liberation's road the very body is a burden
Why take other luggage?

His is the world beyond heaven
Who is free of the delusion of "I" and "Mine."

Sorrows will cling to those who cling
To likes and dislikes.

Those who give up all are saved;
The rest are caught in delusion.

Life's tangle is cut with detachment;
Uncut the thread is endless.

Cling to the One who clings to nothing;
And so clinging, cease to cling.

-- from The Kural (Penguin Classics), by Tiruvalluvar / Translated by P. S. Sundaram

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Recommended Books: Tiruvalluvar

The Kural (Penguin Classics) Weaver's wisdom: Ancient precepts for a perfect life: an American English translation of Saint Tiruvalluvar's ancient Tirukural



Renunciation