Who in this world does not want to feel good? In every
interaction, every conversation, every relationship, every experience that we
encounter, we search for goodness and happiness. It is a normal human trait;
without exception. I have been a recipient of this munificence of goodness from
many people in life.
Technology can be extolled or criticized, as one may perceive it; but this technology has become my platform for sharing goodness with a diverse set of people over the last 3 months and more. I started out writing on Kabir’s Dohas late in May, and shared that on Whatsapp with a few contacts. Within a few days I added Thirukkural by Thirvalluvar. Alternating between the two, I have been posting a daily thought through Whatsapp, Facebook and Emails, to many known and some unknown people. I have borrowed the original thought from these Saints’ writings, and made a short interpretation in my own words, to suit present context or match with present times. It has been a fulfilling and enjoyable journey
Both these saints wrote masterpieces on ethics of living,
how to be happy, what is good, etc. In short, their works are more a guide to
good living than anything else. They lived in different time eras and were geographically
apart, but there is great synergy in their teachings. It only goes to prove
that values of life haven’t changed with development of society. In fact, as
development happened, the need for storing and living those values are far more
relevant and necessary.
Thirvalluvar (also called Valluvar) was born in Nagercoil
(Tamil Nadu) somewhere between 2nd century BC and 8th
century AD. Even if we assume 8th century AD, that is about 1300
years ago. Kabir was born in Varanasi (Uttar Pradesh) in 15th
century AD, i.e. about 600 years ago. Two spiritually evolved literary
stalwarts, set apart by 7 to 10 centuries, couldn’t be more nearer to teaching
values of life, as they were.
Valluvar wrote a treatise called “Thirukkural” which
contains 1330 stanzas of 7 words each, in short, “Kural”. Kural means voice.
Literally this treatise was the voice of goodness and ethics. It was written in
Tamil, which has a history of being probably the only non-sanskrit originating
language in India. The Tamil he used is very difficult to decipher, but once
understood, they are rich in suggestive meanings.
Kabir wrote poems, songs and couplets. His couplets,
called Kabir Dohas, are the most popular of his writings. He used a mix of
various local dialects of colloquial Hindi, therefore his language was very
easy to understand, although in using Avadhi and Bhojpuri words, he preferred
using satire. He believed in drawing the attention of his audience through a
negative criticism of people with wrong tendencies; which enabled his audience
to draw inference on the opposite positive side, as to how to live life.
As a closing tribute to this piece, I am sharing their
sayings and my commentary on those, on one common point. I hope to do a compare on what these masters say
on a few other topics, in the course of the next few months.
Sant Kabir Thirvalluvar
Very well compared. You have brought in similarities well and merged it with your interpretation. Now after 600 years from kabir you could refresh in a new form to benefit the mankind for next 600.
ReplyDeleteThink about it. Good luck
Thanks SR, all He has given is the will and ability to do something in writing. What He makes out of it is His choice
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