The Kural or the Maxims of Tiruvalluvar/Chapter 107
CHAPTER 107
THE DREAD OF BEGGARY
1061. The man that beggeth not is ten million times worthier than he that beggeth, even though it be only at the hands of men that give lovingly and with all their heart.
1062. If He that made the earth intended that man should live even by begging, may He wander about the world and perish.
1063. Nothing is hardier than the hardihood that sayeth to itself, I shall put an end to my indigence by begging.
1064. Behold the dignity that consenteth not to beg even when reduced to utter destitution : even the whole universe is too small to hold it.
1065. Though it is only gruel thin as water, nothing is more savoury than the food that is earned by the labour of one's hands.
1066. Even if what thou beggest is only water for the cow, nothing is so humiliating to the tongue to utter as a begging prayer.
1067. Of all that beg I shall beg but this one thing : If ye needs must beg, beg not of those that shirk.
1068. The hapless ship called begging will split the moment that it striketh the rock of dodging.
1069. The heart melteth even when it contemplateth the lot of the beggar : but when it thinketh on the rebuffs that he receiveth, it simply dieth away.
1070. Where doth the life of the dodger hide itself when he sayeth nay? At the the mere sound of his rebuff the life of the beggar ebbeth away ![1]
- ↑ The fancy is that the rebuff of the dodger kills the beggar; if its virulence is so great, it should kill the dodger himself who nurses it in his bosom.