Abstaining from Intoxicants
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Tap an underlined Tamil word to explore its sound, meaning, and use.
kaiyaṟi yāmai yuṭaittē poruḷkoṭuttu / meyyaṟi yāmai koḷal.
To give away material wealth and obtain bodily self-unawareness in return is an exchange rooted in ignorance.
▸Other translations · Pope (1886) & Aiyar (1916)
“With gift of goods who self-oblivion buys, / Is ignorant of all that man should prize.”
“It is the veriest idiocy to spend one’s substance and obtain in return only insensibility.”
Parimelazhagar’s commentary
13th century · public domainParimelazhagar’s own words come first, unaltered. The plain reading follows below.
பொருள் கொடுத்து மெய் அறியாமை கொளல்= ஒருவன் விலைப்பொருளைக் கொடுத்துக் கள்ளால் தனக்கு மெய்ம்மறப்பினைக் கொள்ளுதல்; கை அறியாமை உடைத்து= அவன் பழவினைப்பயனாய செய்வது அறியாமையைத் தனக்குக் காரணமாக உடைத்து.
Source: Tamil Wikisource
Parimelazhagar explains the exchange plainly: a person gives something of price and, through intoxicating drink, acquires self-oblivion. He reads ‘ignorance of action’ as the cause and connects it to the fruit of prior deeds. That karmic explanation belongs to the classical commentary; it should not be repurposed to blame a person for illness, dependency, or poverty today.