Tirukural

CHAPTER 5

Family Life

41

He alone may be called a householder who supports students, elders and renunciates pursuing well their good paths.§

42

The virtuous householder supports the needs of renunciates, ancestors and the poor.§

43

The foremost duty of family life is to serve duly these five: God, guests, kindred, ancestors and oneself.§

44

The posterity of householders who gather wealth without misdeeds and share meals without miserliness will never perish.§

45

When family life possesses love and virtue, it has found both its essence and fruition.§

46

If a man masters the duties of married life, what further merits could monkhood offer him?§

47

Among those who strive for liberation, the foremost are they who live the blessed state of family life as it should be lived.§

48

The householder dedicated to duty and to aiding ascetics on their path of penance endures more than they do.§

49

Domestic life is rightly called virtue. The monastic path, rightly lived beyond blame, is likewise good.§

50

He who rightly pursues the householder’s life here on Earth will be rightfully placed among the Gods there in Heaven.§