WRITTEN BY LONDON SWAMINATHAN

Post No. 13,669

Date uploaded in London – 14 September 2024                 

Contact – swami_48@yahoo.com

Pictures are taken from various sources for spreading knowledge.

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tamilandvedas.com, swamiindology.blogspot.com

https://www.pustaka.co.in/home/author/london-swaminathan

xxxx  

Misers and Stingy people are hated by the society. We find quotations on them from great scholars around the world from historical times. Shakespeare who lived 500 years ago did not preach violence against them. But Hindus never hesitated to use violence against them. We see such references in the Rig Veda and the Tamil Veda Tirukkural. We have quotations even from the Mahabharata.

Here are a few quotations from Shakespeare:

Misery in Shakespeare meant difficulty. He used Niggard for miserliness.

strait (adj.)   Old form(s): straight , mean, niggardly, stingy        

KJ V.vii.42

[King John to all]

I beg cold comfort; and you are so strait / And so ingrateful you deny me that.

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H8 I.i.70

[Abergavenny to Norfolk, of Wolsey’s pride] If not from hell, the devil is a niggard

***

Mac IV.iii.180

[Macduff to Ross] Be not a niggard of your speech

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H5 II.iv.46

[Dauphin to Constable] a weak and niggardly projection / Doth like a miser spoil his coat with scanting / A little cloth

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TN II.v.4

[Sir Toby to Fabian, of Malvolio] Wouldst thou not be glad to have the niggardly, rascally sheep-biter come by some notable shame?

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1.Decrepit miser! base ignoble wretch!
I am descended of a gentler blood.
Thou art no father nor friend of mine.

2.Rich honesty dwells like a miser, sir, in a poor house; as your pearl in your foul oyster. -As You Like It. Act v. Sc. 4.

3.Sonnet 75 in modern English

You are to me what food is to life, or what spring showers are to the earth, and to achieve peace of mind about you I struggle with myself as a miser struggles with his wealth. One moment he proudly enjoys it and the next he’s worried that the thieving age we live in will steal his treasure – now counting it best to keep you to myself, then reckoning it better if the world could see my pleasure. At times I feel full from feasting on your looks but eventually absolutely starving for a glimpse of you, having or looking for no pleasure except what you give me and what I can take from you. That’s why I either waste away with hunger day after day, or either stuff myself with you or go without.

Sonnet 75: So Are You To My Thoughts As Food To Life

So are you to my thoughts as food to life,
Or as sweet-season’d showers are to the ground;
And for the peace of you I hold such strife
As ‘twixt a miser and his wealth is found………
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Merchant of Venice

Shylock is a greedy and a miser in Shakespeare’s Merchant of Venice drama. He  is a Jewish moneylender who loans 3,000 ducats to his Christian rival Antonio, setting the security at a pound of Antonio’s flesh. When a bankrupt Antonio defaults on the loan, Shylock demands the pound of flesh.. Meanwhile, Shylock’s daughter, Jessica, falls in love with Antonio’s friend Lorenzo and converts to Christianity, leaves Shylock’s house and steals vast riches from him, which add to Shylock’s rage and harden his resolve for revenge. In the end – due to the efforts of Antonio’s well-wisher, Portia – Shylock is charged with attempted murder of a Christian, carrying a possible death penalty, and Antonio is freed without punishment.

Greedy King Midas is also referred to in the play.

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VIOLENCE IN RIG VEDA AND TAMIL VEDA AGAINST THE MISERS!

Rig Veda is the oldest religious book; and that is the oldest anthology. It is full of mystery and history. It shows a civilised society with very high values. The Vedic seers praised hospitality and charity. They made it one of the six tasks for Brahmins; they can accept donation but they must also give. Tamil literature also praised hospitality and charity. Tamils consider Tirukkural, the didactic book with 1330 couplets, as the Tamil Veda. It is authored by Tiruvalluvar, the greatest of the Tamil poets. Though Rig Veda and Tamil Veda are thousands of years apart, the values remained same throughout the vast land, then the world’s largest country. 

The Vedic and Tamil poets were dead against the misers. They went even to the extent of preaching violence against the stingy fellows. The poets of the Rig Veda and Tamil Veda advocates arm twisting and jaw breaking tactics to extract money from the parsimonious and penurious lot

Rig Veda says,

When will Indra trample, like a weed; the man who hath no gifts for him? RV 1-84-8

“Slay the niggards”- says another Vedic seer 1-184-2

“Wealth comes not to the niggard, unpleasant man” – RV 7-32-21

DROWN MISERS IN THE SEA: MAHABHARATA

Ambhasi nivestavya: To be drowned in ocean

Mahabharata says,
Dvaambhasi nivestavyau gale badhwaa drutaam silaam
Dhanavantamadaataaram daridram caatapasvinam
—Udyoga parva 33.60

 Drown the following two kinds of people in the ocean:

1.Adaataa Chanukah
Richman who doesn’t give
2.Atapasvi daridra
Poor man who is not devout

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From Tamil Books

Break the jaw; Crush him like Sugarcane: Valluvar

Tamil poet Tiruvaluvar never hesitated to advocate violence against the mean-minded, close fisted, Scrooge like fellows; he says in a Tirukkural couplet,

“At a mere word the good melt; but the mean, like the sugarcane, yield only under pressure” – 1078

Another translation of the same couplet: “Good men of virtue give charity at the mere call for help, but ignoble ones, will give only when crushed like sugarcane”.

Another couplet runs like this:

“The mean will not even shake off what sticks to their hands to any but those who would break their jaws with their clenched fists”- 1077

Another translation of the same couplet: Except to those who twist their hands and break their jaws, mean characters, will not even shake their food-moistened fingers.

In another couplet, Valluvar advocated also death penalty for the murderers. He compared the murderers as weeds in the field. Capital punishment for grievous offences is like the weeding of fields, necessary for protecting the food crops.

“The king gives capital punishment to wicked killers like removing weeds from flourishing fields” (Tirukkural 550)

Sanskrit law books such as Manu smrti and Sukra neeti also support capital punishment.

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Tolkappiam and Bhagavad Gita

Oldest Tamil book Tolkappiam also says that those who don’t give will be shunned and those who give would be praised (Sutra 1036)

 In the Bhagavad Gita, Lord Krishna says those who cook for themselves, verily eat sin (B.G.3-13)

Manu also says the same: “The person who cooks only for himself eats nothing but sin, for the food left over from sacrifice is the food intended for good men”- Manu 3-118

 2000 years ago, Tamil poet Ilamperu Vazuthi (Purananuru verse 182) said that Tamils wouldn’t eat alone even if they get Indra’s Amrta (ambrosia from the Indraloka); Giving and sharing was in their blood.

There is a satirical couplet in Sanskrit, mocking at the misers:

Krupana iva daataa na bhuuto na bhavishayati

Na buncanneva sarvasvam parasmai sah pradaasyati

 There was neither a philanthropist in the past nor there will be one in in the future like the misers. They don’t even eat and leave all theirs to others.

 It is true indeed that they don’t spend anything for themselves and after their death, all their wealth go to others.

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People are of Three Tree Types! 

He gives twice who gives quickly – is a proverb.

A Tamil poem also says that there is nothing wrong to say ‘No’ if one doesn’t have money to donate; but it is the habit of low lives to dodge and refuse to give at the end (Naladiyar poem) 

Another Tamil verse compares people who prevent other people from giving to a fruit tree surrounded by thorny bush. Here the fruit tree stands for the philanthropists and the thorny bush to the bad people who prevent the good people from donating. (Neethineri Venba)

The same poet divides people into three categories:

Palmyra Tree people:

The first category is like the Palmyra tree; they give like Palmyra trees; i.e the Palmyra trees give fruits even without we watering it.

The second category of people is like the Coconut trees. You have to water the coconut trees now and then to get good yields.

The third category of people is like areca nut trees. Unless you water it constantly the trees wont yield you any fruits. People at the lowest level will help you only when you help them. 

—-subham—

Tags- Miser, Niggard, stingy, Shakespeare, Rig Veda, Tirukkural, Violence, Mahabharata, Tree Types, Men, Midas, Shylock