குறளின் குரல் - 7

April 10, 2012,

There is a story of Bhagavan Ramakrishna, which I have heard, growing up. Once the concerned parents of a boy, took him to Ramakrishna and asked him if he could advice their son to eat all vegetables as this boy had some strong preferences and  would not touch some of the vegetables.

Bhagavan smiled, and asked them to come a week later, which the couple did dutifully… This time also after the Darshan was over, Bhagavan asked them to come back couple of weeks later. This continued for a while. Couple, almost resigned to thinking, that such a trivial matter was nothing for Swamiji and almost forgot about what they asked, but they continued to visit him as he would ask him to comeback later.

During one of their visits, couple of months later, Bhagavan called the boy and asked him not to hate any vegetable and after all everything was God’s creation and He meant them for us, human beings etc,. Curios parents approached Bhagavan and asked him how come he suddenly remembered their request couple of months ago and advised the boy only now – to which Bhagavan replied, “ How could I advice a boy when this renounced body of mine had its own strong preferences and in fact did not eat some of the same vegetables, myself. It took a couple of months for me to change myself in the first place and now, I feel, my advising the boy means something”. This story effectively puts forth that people that are in power have to be devoid of faults in the first place before they are in a place of judging others. The verse for today’s thought is this:

தன்குற்றம் நீக்கிப் பிறர்குற்றங் காண்கிற்பின்

என்குற்ற மாகும் இறைக்கு.

                                    (kuraL: 436: குற்றங்கடிதல் அதிகாரம்)

Since the kuraL comes under “ kutram kadidhal adikAram” (குற்றம் கடிதல்) of “Arasu Iyal” (அரசியல்), in “porut pAl” (பொருட்பால்), the word “iRai” (இறை) means the head of ruling as in a “King” or the person that renders justice to people. If the “Ruler” learns to know his own faults first and gets rid of them, when he is in a position to judge other’s faults, he will not err in his judgment.  Once again, this verse is also applicable in general context for anybody, but more so for people of power that are likely to be blinded by the same as power corrupts

than kutRam –  faults of his/her own faults (the person power)

nIkki – get rid of

piRar kutRam – faults or errors, crimes committed by his own subjects and others

kAnkiRpin –   if is able to judge/find knowing that the self is devoid of the 

                     (most definitely same ) faults/mistakes/errors/crimes

en kutRamAgum – what can go wrong for ?

iRaikku – for the head person (the person of power)

“Personal cleansing to be devoid of evils of fault

  Can bring no mistakes in the judgment of thought”

இன்றெனது குறள்:

குடியதனின் குற்றம்காண் கோன்குற்றம் அற்றால்

கெடுவதிலை யாம்கொற்றம் காண்

Do you have any preferred kurAl, that I should be discussing here?As such, I have no order here, I am playing it like book cricket as of now...!