Valluvar, Einstein And Shakespeare

By London Swaminathan

In this book on Tiruvalluvar and Tirukkural, I have compared a lot of his couplets with the Western authors or famous persons like Einstein, Shakespeare, Voltaire, Seneca and Eastern thinkers like Adi Shankara, Buddha, Manu, Bhartruhari and Dr. Radhakrishnan. I owe a lot to SM Diaz and VR Ramachandra Dikshitar from whose brilliant works on Tirukkural, I have used quotations of great thinkers. I thank them for enlightening me and millions of Tamils.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Pustaka Digital Media
• Release date: Oct 15, 2022
• ISBN: 6580553509163

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Valluvar, Einstein And Shakespeare

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London Swaminathan

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Table of Contents

FOREWORD

1.TAMIL POET VALLUVAR AND WESTERN THINKERS ON RIGHT CONDUCT

2. Albert Einstein and Thiru valluvar

3. Where Parimelazakar went wrong!!

4. Seneca and Valluvar

5. TAMIL POET VALLUVAR AND VOLTAIRE

6. VALLUVAR AND CICERO: Face is the Index of the Mind

7. SHAKESPEARE IN TAMIL VEDA TIRUKKURAL- Part 1

8. LOVE ALL, TRUST A FEW, DO WRONG TO NONE! SHAKESPEARE & TAMIL VEDA TIRUKKURAL- 2

9. SWEET MERCY IS NOBILITY’S TRUE BADGE-SHAKESPEARE AND TIRUKKURAL – 3

10. Sexy Tamil Veda Tirukkural scared Christians!

11. Foreign Scholar who studied Tamil Language for 63 years!

12. HINDU GODS IN TAMIL VEDA TIRUKKURAL

13. Great Men Praise Tamil Poet Tiruvalluvar and Tamil Veda Tirukkural!

14. DON’T HATE YOURSELF AND OTHERS- MANU, BUDDHA, CHANAKYA & VALLUVAR AGREE!

15. Comparison of Sankara’s Viveka Cudamani and Tiruvalluvar’s Tirukkural

16. When can you tell a lie? Adi Shankara’s Advice

17. Bhartruhari and Valluvar on Fools! A Story from Panchatantra!

18. Fools are Beasts without Tails- Bhartruhari and Valluvar agree!

19. SILENCE IS THE ORNAMENT OF FOOLS- BHARTRUHARI AND VALLUVAR

20. Fate decides your Wealth, say Shakespeare, Bhartruhari and Valluvar

21. About Brahmins: Buddha and Valluvar Think Alike!-

22. Chanakya and Valluvar

23. PORUTPAAL; CHANAKYA’S ARTHASASTRA COMPARED

24. Knowledge of Medicine and Method of Treatment in Tamil and Sanskrit Books

25. Spies! Disguised as Ascetics!

26. CHANAKYA AND TAMIL POET VALLUVAR ON EDUCATION

27. A FRIEND IN NEED IS A FRIEND INDEED-MANU AND VALLUVAR ON FRIENDSHIP

28. Tirukkural and Bhagavad Gita compared by Rev G U Pope and VRR Dikshitar

29. Part 2 of Tirukkural and Gita compared

30. Valluvar and Manu agree on Violence, Non-Violence, Leadership and Householder

31. Manu in Tirukkural: More Couplets Compared by Rev.G U Pope

32. MANU IN TAMIL VEDA TIRUKKURAL: Rev GU Pope and Father Beschi compare

33. ‘I am Alpha and Omega’ – Krishna and Christ

34. Arthasastra,Ramayana and Tirukkural Compared

35. KAMA SASTRA COMPARED

36. SRI DEVI AND JESHYTA DEVI IN TIRUKKURAL

37. Buddha and Valluvar on Words and Deeds

38. Kalidasa and Valluvar on Bad Friends and Laughter

39. Karma Theory-Buddha and Valluvar

40. Desire and Hatred: Buddha and Valluvar

41. Buddha and Valluvar on Vegetarianism and Hypocrisy

42. Buddha and Tamil Saint on Good thoughts!

43. STORY OF TIRU VALLUVAR STATUE IN LONDON UNIVERSITY

FOREWORD

In this book on Tiru Valluvar and Tirukkural, I have compared a lot of his couplets with the Western authors or famous persons like Einstein, Shakespeare, Voltaire, Seneca and Eastern thinkers like Adi Shankara, Buddha, Manu, Bhartruhari  and Dr Radhakrishnan. I owe a lot to S M Diaz and VR Ramachandra Dikshitar from whose brilliant works on Tirukkural, I have used quotations of great thinkers . I thank them for enlightening me and millions of Tamils.

There are bound to be some repetitions as these articles appeared over a period of 11 years in my blogs as separate articles. Please bear this in mind while you are reading the book.

It would have been better if I had time to prepare an index of subjects like Truth, Chastity, Friendship etc. but constraint of time was the big hurdle.

Oh, East is East, and West is West, and never the twain shall meet,

Till Earth and Sky stand presently at God's great Judgment Seat;

But there is neither East nor West, Border, nor Breed, nor Birth,

When two strong men stand face to face, though they come from the ends of the earth!

- said Rudyard Kipling.

Here in this book, we see great men think alike. Universal truths are common to everyone. All moral books praise truth, friendship, honesty, chastity, sweet words, brotherhood, and other virtues. This approach will strengthen the unity among communities. Hope you agree with me.

All the articles carry the date of posting in my blog and the serial number of the post. I welcome your comments on the topics discussed here.

London Swaminathan

October 2022

1.TAMIL POET VALLUVAR AND WESTERN THINKERS ON RIGHT CONDUCT

The greatest of the ancient Tamil poets, Tiru valluvar had composed ten verses on right conduct or discipline. As it is the main topic in religious scriptures, we have lot of verses in religious books. But by comparing the verses with other western poets we learn that great men think alike irrespective of the race, religion and geographical location.

Let us compare a few verses: –

Right conduct makes one great; hence right conduct is greater than life (Tirukkural 131).

Mathew Arnold said,

Conduct is three fourths of life and its largest concern.

Dr S M Diaz, I G of Police in Tamil Nadu says,

"And that is precisely why in the National Police Academy at Hyderabad where officers of the Indian Police Service at all levels are trained, I had prominently placed the following inscription: –

No Niagara is ever turned into light and power

Until it is tunnelled and confined

No life ever grows great until It is Focussed,

Dedicated and Disciplined

According to Plato, what is to be feared in life is disgrace and not death.

Tiruvalluvar, author of Tirukkural, says elsewhere,

Hair lost, the yak lives not.

Honour lost, noble men leave their life (Kural 969)

Noble men do not outlive loss of honour. The world hails their glory (970).

***

In another couplet, Valluvar says

Right conduct is true nobility;

The absence of it is just ignoble (Kural 133)

The great French dramatist Moliere said that ‘Virtue is the first title of Nobility’, while Benson and Forster would rate ‘sincerity’ and considerateness’ as the determinants of true aristocracy.

In Kural/couplet 134, Valluvar says,

The Brahmin who has forgotten his scriptures could read them up again;

But if he neglects right conduct he will lose his birth-right.

This couplet in fact is an amplification of the previous Kural 133, Moliere’s statement that ‘Birth is nothing where virtues is not" is relevant here.

S M Diaz, has given lot of comparisons from The Bible (Proverbs) for every couplet in this chapter.

In the couplet 140, Valluvar says

Even men of learning will be as ignorant as men,

If they do not live in tune with the world.

The following passage from Lord Chesterfield could be considered a felicitous alternative translation of this Kural:

A man of the best parts and the greatest learning, if he does not know the world by his own experience and obligation, will be very absurd and consequently very unwelcome in company.

***

What Indian Scholars say about conduct?

It may be sandal paste, incense or water lily or jasmine. The fragrance of good conduct has nothing superior to such perfumes – Dhammapada 4-12

As one acts according to one’s conduct. so does he become.

The doer of good becomes good; of evil, evil.

One become virtuous by virtuous acts.

- Brihad Aranyaka Upanishad 4.4.4

Do nothing to others which, if done to you , would cause you pain;  this is the sum of polity.

- Mahabharata, 5-1517

Forget not the good done to you;

Despise evil friends

Give not false evidence

And depart not from the truth.

Fail not to join the assembly of the learned,

Strive always to escape from the company of the lawless;

Abstain from others’ wives

Help the dying.

- Tamil Epic Silappadikaram

Conduct renders a man virtuous, a coward or her, transmuting purity into purity.

Valmiki Ramayana, Ayodhya Kanda, Chapter 108

Source books: Tirukkural Translation by S M Diaz

The Golden Treasury of Indian Quotations R N Saletore

2. Albert Einstein and Thiru valluvar

Tiru Valluvar is the most popular Tamil poet and the author of Tirukkural which is called Tamil Veda. Valluvar lived at least 1500 years ago. Albert Einstein was the greatest physicist of our time. He was the author of the Theory of Relativity.Einstein was born in 1879 in Germany and died in 1955in Princeton, USA. Both were great thinkers in their own fields. Let me compare a few quotations of Einstein with the Tamil poet Valluvar.

ZEAL

One should not pursue goals that are easily achieved. One must develop an instinct for what one can just barely achieve through one’s greatest efforts. —Albert Einstein

All thought should be the thought of rising high though it fails; it is the nature of success. Your aspirations keep you on a higher plane (Tirukkural 596)

Though wounded with arrows, the elephant stands firm in his greatness; he who has spirit never loses heart when he fails (Tirukkural 597)

Let a man lift himself by himself; let him not degrade himself; for the self alone is the friend of the self and self alone is the enemy of the self. (Bhagavad Gita 6-5) 

Purananuru verse 214 of Kopperum Chozan also advises everyone to Aim High. A person who wanted to hunt an elephant will come with an elephant after a successful hunt. A person who wants to hunt