173
Kural-96
They are fools who say that love is for the righteous alone: for even against the evil-minded
love is the only ally for a man.
Kural-97
Behold how the sun burneth the boneless worm: even so doth Righteousness burn the man
that doth not love.
Kural-98
Behold the man whose heart knoweth not what love is: he will know prosperity only when the
sapless tree desert putteth forth leaves.
Kural-99
Of what avail is a lovely outside, if love, the soul’s ornaments, hath no place in the heart?
Kural-100
The seat of life is in love: the man who hath it not is only a mass of skin-encased bone.
The is one of the finest chapters in the Kural and reveals the sterling character of the
poet. The poet begins the chapter with the statement that there is no fastening that can shut in
love and that it (love) would easily reveal itself in the sorrowful tears of the affectionate. He
then says that those who are destitute of love appropriate all that they have to themselves; but
those who possess love consider even their bones to belong t others. The commentator refers
to the story of SibiChakravarti who gave up his flesh for the sake of the dove, pursued by the
hunter. He then goes on to say that the union of soul and body in a man refers to the fruit of
his good actions done in a former birth. They say that the felicity of heaven and the happiness
of earth are the fruit of the virtue and love in the conjugal state and this obviously refers to a
life of love in the domestic state. In other words, it may be said that the bliss of heaven, the
blessed have, is rooted in a loving life on earth. The poet also says that love is not an ally to
virtue alone, but it is also a help to vice in the sense of ‘doing evil for one we love.’ Both the
images of the sun burning up creatures without bone and that of the flourishing of a withered
tree
upon the barren desert, to depict the soul that is without love;
give a vivid picture of
futility. The poet concludes this chapter explaining that the body is a dwelling of a soul which
came
in the path of love; whereas the body of those who are without love is merely bone
covered with skin.
