Tirukural

CHAPTER 8

Possessing Love

71

Can any lock keep love confined within, when the loving heart’s tiny tears escape and confess it?§

72

The unloving belong only to themselves, but the loving belong to others to their very bones.§

73

They say it is to know union with love that the soul takes union with the body.§

74

Love makes one affectionate toward all, and affection affords the priceless treasure of friendship.§

75

They say love’s greatness is this: it yields to good families worldly happiness here and heavenly bliss hereafter.§

76

The uninformed say love abides with virtuous souls, unaware that love is also friend to those immersed in vice.§

77

As the blazing sun dries up a boneless worm, so does virtue scorch a loveless being.§

78

Life without love in the heart is like a sapless tree in a barren desert.§

79

What good is a body perfect in outer ways, if inwardly it is impaired by lack of love?§

80

With love enshrined in the heart, one truly lives. Without it, the body is but bones encased in skin.§