TTiru Vlluvar with OM badge.
Written by London Swaminathan
Post No. 16,229
Date uploaded in London – 23 September 2026
Contact – swami_48@yahoo.com
Pictures are taken from various sources for spreading knowledge.
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tamilandvedas.com, swamiindology.blogspot.com
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Points to be noted:
Valluvar who is famous for his brevity, wasted words in this chapter; the message is simple- Cut down desires; you will be happy and won’t have rebirth.
Kirshna and Buddha also said it:
Who is not elated, who does not hate, does not grieve, who has renounced both good and bad, he, is dear to Me.- Bhagavad Gita 12-17
XX
na kahāpaṇavassena titti kāmesu vijjati |
appassādā dukhā kāmā iti viññāya paṇḍito || 186 || Dhammapadam
api dibbesu kāmesu ratiṃ so nādhigacchati |
taṇhakkhayarato hoti sammāsambuddhasāvako || 187 || Dhammapadam
186. Not by a rain of golden coins is found desires’ satiety, desires are dukkha, of little joy, thus a wise one understands.
187. Even with pleasures heavenly that one finds no delight, the perfect Buddha’s pupil delights in craving’s end.
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Following Translations are used:
1.A Aranganatha Mudaliyar – ANM+2 ( B.L. Aranganatha iyer and R. Srinivasa Desikan), Year 1933
2.S M Diaz, I G of Police- SMD, Year 2000
3.Rev.Dr.GU Pope – GUP, Year 1886
4.Suddhananda Bharathiyar- SB
5.EVS Publishers, Singapore- EVS, Year 1986
6.H A Popley – HAP (not full book; only selected couplets) Year 1931
7.Tamil Original
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Part 55- Kural Chapter 37- The Extirpation of Desire; அவா அறுத்தல் – Curbing of desire
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361.Desire, the wise say, is the seed that always yields a never-failing crop of births to every soul that walks on earth- A Aranganatha Mudaliyar – ANM+2 ( B.L. Aranganatha iyer and R. Srinivasa Desikan), Year 1933
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361.Desire is for all beings, the seed out of which,
Is born the endless cycle of birth and death- S M Diaz, I G of Police – SMD, Year 2000
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361
The wise declare, through all the days, to every living thing.
That ceaseless round of birth from seed of strong desire doth spring.
(The wise) say that the seed, which produces unceasing births, at all times, to all creatures, is desire. Rev.Dr.GU Pope – GUP, Year 1886
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361.Desire to all, always is seed
From which ceaseless births proceed. Suddhananda Bharathiyar- SB
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361.Desire is the seed for an endless chain of births for all beings at all times –EVS Publishers, Singapore – EVS, Year 1986
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361. அவாஎன்ப எல்லா உயிர்க்கும் எஞ்ஞான்றும்
தவாஅப் பிறப்பீனும் வித்து.
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362.If you long for anything in life, yearn for the cessation of the round of births; and freedom from births comes of the slaying of the desires – ANM+2
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362.There is nothing worthier to be desired than release from births,
And this comes only out of the absence of all desire-– SMD
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362
If desire you feel, freedom from changing birth require!
‘I’ will come, if you desire to ‘scape, set free from all desire.
If anything be desired, freedom from births should be desired; that (freedom from births) will be attained by desiring to be without desire. – GUP
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362.If long thou must, long for non-birth
It comes by longing no more for earth. – SB
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362.If there is one thing one should ask for, it is freedom from births, and this is gained by the annihilation of desire– EVS
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362.If aught you wish, then wish for birthlessness;
That of it will come, if wishlessness you wish-.H A Popley – HAP (not full book; only selected couplets) Year 1931
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362. வேண்டுங்கால் வேண்டும் பிறவாமை மற்றது
வேண்டாமை வேண்ட வரும்.
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363.Either in the land of the living or in the region of the gods, there is no wealth precious than freedom from the fetters of desire-– ANM+2
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363.There is no wealth better than desirelessness in this world
Nor is there anything like it beyond too– SMD
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363
No glorious wealth is here like freedom from desire;
To bliss like this not even there can soul aspire.
There is in this world no excellence equal to freedom from desire; and even in that world, there is nothing like it. – GUP
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363.No such wealth is here and there
As peerless wealth of non-desire. – SB
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363.There is no felicity equal to desirelessness in this world or in the celestial world for which one aspires– EVS
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363.There is here no greater wealth than wishlessness;
And there, too, nothing is equal to it.-H A Popley – HAP
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363. வேண்டாமை அன்ன விழுச்செல்வம் ஈண்டில்லை
யாண்டும் அஃதொப்பது இல்.
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364.Purity of hearts springs from desirelessness: verily freedom from desire flows from the yearning of the soul that stretches its arms towards perfection-– ANM+2
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364.Purity consists in the freedom from all desires
Which comes from the relentless pursuit of Truth– SMD
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364
Desire’s decease as purity men know;
That, too, from yearning search for truth will grow.
Purity (of mind) consists in freedom from desire; and that (freedom from desire) is the fruit of the love of truth. – GUP
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364.To nothing crave is purity
That is the fruit of verity. – SB
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364.Salvation is the immaculate condition of being free from desire which results from one’s love of truth– EVS
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364.For heaven itself is freedom from desire;
And that will come from longing for the Truth –.H A Popley – HAP
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364. தூஉய்மை என்பது அவாவின்மை மற்றது
வாஅய்மை வேண்ட வரும்
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365.The liberated ones are they who have wrought their freedom from the bond of desires; the rest enjoy not such light of freedom-– ANM+2
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365.Only those, who have given up all desire, have truly renounced;
The surely have not renounced adequately– SMD
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365
Men freed from bonds of strong desire are free;
None other share such perfect liberty.
They are said to be free (from future birth) who are freed from desire; all others (who, whatever else they may be free from, are not freed from desire) are not thus free. – GUP
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365.The free are those who desire not
The rest not free in bonds are caught– SB
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365.Only those free from desire are free from births; the others are not though they may be immune from certain afflictions– EVS
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365.Freed from desire, then only are we free;
Others though free from ills, are not entirely free.-H A Popley – HAP
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365. அற்றவர் என்பார் அவாஅற்றார் மற்றையார்
அற்றாக அற்றது இலர்
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366.Guard against creeping desires, lest they should steal into your heart and smother the light of your soul-– ANM+2
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366.Desire is what cheats a man out of his birthright;
Only conquest of desire is, therefore, true virtue– SMD
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366
Desire each soul beguiles;
True virtue dreads its wiles.
It is the chief duty of (an ascetic) to watch against desire with (jealous) fear; for it has power to deceive (and destroy) him. – GUP
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366.Dread desire; Virtue is there
To every soul desire is snare! – SB
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366.Desire is the evil which causes deception and detracts one from ‘Mukthy’. It is therefore proper that one should beware of it and guard oneself against it– EVS
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366. அஞ்சுவ தோரும் அறனே ஒருவனை
வஞ்சிப்ப தோரும் அவா
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367.Immortality is at the command of the man who has banished all desires from the heart-– ANM+2
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367.If one roots out all desire fully, the soul’s ultimate yearning
For a good and spotless life, will be realised easily-– SMD
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367
Who thoroughly rids his life of passion-prompted deed,
Deeds of unfailing worth shall do, which, as he plans, succeed.
If a man thoroughly cut off all desire, the deeds, which confer immortality, will come to him, in the path in which he seeks them. – GUP
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367.Destroy desire; deliverance
Comes as much as you aspire hence. – SB
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367.If it were possible for one to totally annihilate desire, the asceticism necessary for freeing oneself from the affliction of births would come of itself – EVS
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7. அவாவினை ஆற்ற அறுப்பின் தவாவினை
தான்வேண்டு மாற்றான் வரும்
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368.He has no grief who has no desires; but sorrow upon sorrow descends on the heart which is a prey to them-– ANM+2
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368.No grief will come to those who have eliminated all desire;
Where there is desire, endless sorrows will co-exist– SMD
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368
Affliction is not known where no desires abide;
Where these are, endless rises sorrow’s tide.
There is no sorrow to those who are without desire; but where that is, (sorrow) will incessantly come, more and more. – GUP
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368.Desire extinct no sorrow-taints
Grief comes on grief where it pretends. – SB
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368.There is no misery if there is no desire. If there is desire misery will recur ever-more– EVS
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8. அவாஇல்லார்க் கில்லாகுந் துன்பம் அஃதுண்டேல்
தவாஅது மேன்மேல் வரும்.
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369.Even in this world of strife, man is crowned with everlasting joy, if he slays the cruel monster off desire-– ANM+2
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369.If the sorrow off al sorrows, which is desire, is destroyed,
Continuous happiness will ensue, even in this life– SMD
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369
When dies away desire, that woe of woes
Ev’n here the soul unceasing rapture knows.
Even while in this body, joy will never depart (from the mind, in which) desire, that sorrow of sorrows, has been destroyed. – GUP
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369.Desire, the woe of woes destroy
Joy of joys here you enjoy. – SB
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369. If desire, the greatest of afflictions, would become extinct there would be perpetual happiness even in this world – EVS
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9. இன்பம் இடையறா தீண்டும் அவாவென்னும்
துன்பத்துள் துன்பம் கெடின்.
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370.Be not blindly searching for immortality: she is on your very palm, the moment you have conquered the insatiable hunger of the heart-– ANM+2
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370.If desire, which is by nature a bottomless pit, be eliminated,
It will, in turn, naturally bring about lasting happiness– SMD
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370
Drive from thy soul desire insatiate;
Straight’way is gained the moveless blissful state.
The removal of desire, whose nature it is never to be satisfied, will immediately confer a nature that can never be changed. – GUP
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370.Off with desire insatiate
You gain the native blissful state. – SB
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370.If desire which is of an insatiable nature could be annihilated, one would attain eternity in ‘Mukthy’– EVS
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10. ஆரா இயற்கை அவாநீப்பின் அந்நிலையே
பேரா இயற்கை தரும்.
–subham—
Tags- Valluvar wasted Words! Tirukkural Encyclopaedia, Chapter 37, அவா அறுத்தல் ,Curbing of desire,Elimination of Desire





























