The Kural or the Maxims of Tiruvalluvar/Chapter 34
SECTION ii
B. WISDOM
CHAPTER 34
THE VANITY OF ALL THINGS
331. There is no greater folly than the
infatuation that looketh upon the transient as if it were everlasting.
332. The crowd that assembleth to witness a village show, that is the symbol of great riches flowing on a man: and the dispersal of that same crowd is the type of its passing away.
333. Prosperity is transient : if thou have come by it, delay not to do things that are of lasting good.
334. Tine looketh like an innocent thing : but verily it is a saw that is continually sawing away the life of man.
335. Make haste to do good works before the tongue is paralysed and hiccough ariseth in the throat.
336. But yesterday a man was and to-day he is not: that is the wonder of wonders in this world.
337. Man knoweth not if he shall last the next minute: but his thoughts are more than ten million.
338. The fledgeling abandoneth the broken shell of the egg and flieth away: that is the symbol of the love between the soul and the body.
339. Death is like unto a sleep: and life is like the waking after that sleep.
340. Hath the soul no home of its own, that it taketh shelter in this worthless body?
