“Thirukkural” The cream of the Tamil ancient literature

Thirukkural is a well-known work on ethical and moral codes of human life, in Tamil literature written by Thiruvalluvar, the most celebrated Tamil Poet, who lived between the second century BCE and the eight-century CE. Both the Tamils who practice Hinduism and the Tamils who follow Jainism and Buddhism claim him. The utter simplicity of his language his crystal clear utterances, precise and forceful, his brevity, his choice diction, no less his inwardness, his learning, culture and wisdom, his catholicity and eclecticism, his gentle humour and wholesome counsel have made him an object of veneration for all time and Thirukkuarl is considered the Veda of the Tamils.

Thirukkural proved to be the cream of the Tamil ancient literature. Today among the most translated books into various languages the Holy Bible stands the first. Next to the Holy Bible Thirukkural has been translated into most of the world languages.

The book Thirukkural contains 3 main Parts, the first on ARAM means the way or dharma; the second on PORUL means material or artha and third on INBAM means joy or kama. There are 133 chapters in this book and each chapter contains 10 distichs in the meter know as Kural and there are 1330 kurals in total. Each Kural [couplet] consists of four seers in the first line and three seers in the second line. A seer is a single or a combination of more than one Tamil word.

Therefore, it has been said that the poet Thiruvalluvar has pierced the atom and has packed within it the seven seas of the world.

The first Kural:
Ahara Muthala Ezhuthellam Athi;
Pahavan Muthatrey Ulahu.

It means:
A as its first of letters, every speech maintains;The Primal Deity is first through all the world’s domains.

Pope Benedict XVI's Message on the Social Week has hit the nail on the head

The Church always stood for the total liberation of man, who is the image of God. The principles of justice and love are based on equality and formed on the light of the Gospel [Gaudium et spes 63]. Rerum Novarum, the first social Encyclical written by the pope Leone XIII on 15 May 1891, was the first social document, in which the Church clearly and authentically announced its stand on the political, social and economical issues of the world.

From ‘Rerum Novarum’ till ‘Deus Caritas est’ all the social encyclicals have been giving voice for the same problems. But few days before the letter written by his Holiness pope Benedict XVI on the occasion of the Social week celebrations by the Italian Catholics addressed to the president of the Italian Bishops Conference, hit the headlines of the Italian news boards. The explicit theme of the letter is the “Common Good”, the message begins with respect for life and the family, but he does not stop there, but continues to say openly that in the Italian society, one concrete situation where the family must be protected and promoted is job security. Therefore, lack of job-security does not allow young people to build their own family, the authentic and complete development of society is seriously compromised and he invites the Italian citizens and especially the Catholic laity to respond to these challenges, with renewed dynamism, opening themselves trustingly to new relationships and not neglecting any of the energies capable of contributing to cultural and moral growth.

The reason why this message hit the headlines is very apparent, today in the unemployment percentage is increasing women and youth have significantly higher rates of unemployment [http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/4033.htm]. The number of official marriages celebrated in Italy has declined steadily since the early 1970’s, with 404,464 registered in 1971 and 264,026 in 2001, according to the national statistics bureau, Istat. The number fell to just over 250,000 in 2005, Istat said [www.sacbee.com – Family Issues]. The Italian government instead of solving the basic problems to promote legal families by job security it tries to bring legislation that would give legal rights to unmarried couples, including gay and lesbian partners. In this situation pope Benedict XVI’s message on the social week has hit nail on the head.

"CREATIONISM" A Threat to Human Rights ? ? ?

Every religion, culture and tradition has got it’s own creation stories, beliefs and traditions which has been handed over from generations to generations through various sacred writings, literatures and oral traditions. It is very clear and obvious that there are not any specific and concrete scientific proofs for creationism, at the same time, as it has been reported by the European Centre for Law and Justice against the statement made by the European Council “The report does not respect the freedom of expression of teachers, researchers and students as manifest in academic freedom, because it seeks to eradicate an alternative to the Darwinian model of the origin of life, there by elevating the theory of evolution to scientific dogma, while the majority of scientists have concluded that evolution is the soundest theory concerning the origins of life, ‘scientific truth is not proven by consensus”

Therefore, it is very clear both Creationism and Evolution theory does not have sound scientific proofs, but both are based on certain convictions and beliefs about the origin and development of life on this earth and the settings of the cosmos.

This body is seriously concerned that creationism is not only a threat to their secularized educational systems, but to democracy itself. Human rights could be endangered, the Council claims, if the continent is "not careful." But at the same time, does the European Council has taken sufficient measures to face the burning issues of Iran and brutal killings of the Buddhist monks in Burma, in which human rights has been taken to the burial grounds. Along with these I would to add few other important problems mostly faced by Europe and USA in which, children’s rights have been neglected such as, the enormous number of abortions, child trafficking, child abuse, use of drugs in the schools, children ads and etc. More over UK parliament is pressured to permit the creation of half-human and half-animal embryos for scientific experiments and is it not a danger to the human rights and democracy? Therefore, it is highly illogical and ridiculous that the European Council is trying to say that Creationism is a danger to human rights and democracy.