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meaning of ‘faultless good’ is ‘virtue. Dr. Pope says that St. Paul bases truth-speaking upon
the fact that men are members of one another, while Tiruvalluvar bases it upon the necessity
of maintaining virtue. It is possible that the poet in this stanza meant simply that falsehood
cannot produce faultless good and so must never be indulged in.
The poet also warns one
who knowingly tells a lie; for after he has told the lie, his mind will burn him because of the
memory of his guilt. He goes on to say that he, who in his conduct preserves a mind free from
deceit, will dwell in the minds of all men and he, who speaks
the truth with his heart, is
superior to those who make gifts and practice austerities. An ascetic must have the quality of
truthfulness if he is to be a true ascetic. The two greatest causes of lying are lust and
covetousness, both of which the ascetic has renounced, says the commentator. The poet then
makes an interesting observation that while the purity
of body is produced by water; the
purity of mind comes from truthfulness. He then concludes the chapter by saying that amidst
all that we have seen and described as real excellence, there is absolutely nothing so good as
truthfulness.
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