THIRUKKURAL 102 &110 on TIMELY HELP

Thu, June 17, 2010 7

 THIRUKKURAL  on TIMELY HELP

In 1915, after returning from South Africa ,  Gandhi started Satyagraha Ashrama

in Ahmedabad. First time in his life he faced financial crisis, there were no funds for the next month maintenance. At that time an unknown  person met him and told him that he wanted  to help the ashrama. Gandhi confessed to him the financial crisis.The unknown man came again next day and left an envelop in the ashrama. Gandhi found Rs 13,000 ( in 1915 it was a huge amount.) Gandhi writes in his autobiography that he has never met him again. Knowing the gravity of the crisis, he had helped the ashrama with a huge amount , It was not a mere help, it was a  'timely help', unknown man  was a noble soul.

'Help' is different from 'timely help,' sending some money to an orphanage every month is a help, but spontaneously helping during a critical time without expecting any reward is timely help.

Here time and help are combined, Einstein combined Space and Time and made it Space-Time continuum and redefined many of the  established theories in physics and cosmology. Thiruvalluvar combines time and help and uses the terminology 'timely help'( காலத்தி னாற்செய்த நன்றி ), which gains a new dimension and gives a deeper
meaning.

From an orphanage,  an 85 years old lady  in a semi coma state was brought to a hospital in  US  . She was murmuring the name' Edward ', hospital volunteers traced  lady's grand son Edward and brought him. He was 25 years old ' rough and tough ' guy, caught hold of her hand and sat silently. Reasoning out that her grand son had come, she held his  hand tight for more than eight hours  and peacefully passed  away .

The young man came out , took a cigarette and started smoking, he was  a chain smoker but remained without smoking for more than eight hours, it was a great sacrifice. Then he  told the truth to the hospital authorities that  he was  no way related to her, when the volunteers were searching in vain for one  Edward, he  decided to give a peaceful death to a dying old lady. 

He gave the peaceful death  to an unknown  old lady,  it  was  a ' timely help'. He is a noble soul.

In 1965 one of my friends decided to migrate to Bangalore from his native place and obviously he was in a deep financial crisis. Realizing his difficulty,   I gave him an envelop  with some cash and forgotten it. In 2000 April, he retired from his service,  by that time he had become financially sound, blessed with children and grand children. On the day of his retirement he had arranged for a prayer meeting and  a dinner, I  was also invited. In the end, he offed me a tray full of fruits along with an envelop.

I came home and opened the envelop, it was a very old envelop, there was some cash and a letter mentioning, " this is  the same cover  which you gave me in 1965, there was Rs 1200 in it, it was a big amount because the cost of one sovereign gold at that time was less than Rs 100.  I made use of the amount to pay  the deposit for the rented house, to-day I own that house, .It was a TIMELY HELP, which I can not repay in any form. To my satisfaction I have enclosed some amount, please accept. I was preserving the envelop for so many years, Whenever I saw the envelop,  it reminded me  of  your " timely help."

In the envelop I found ten times of Rs 1200 , I was shocked. We had helped so many people in our life, but only a few are grateful.  Later on I compensated the amount in a different way.

Thiruvalluvar says  in the kural 102 about the timely help. 

When the time at which a help is done is considered,

Even a small help  becomes greater than the world. ( kural 102 )

( Help has to be always weighed with time )

காலத்தி னாற்செய்த நன்றி சிறிதெனினும்
ஞாலத்தின் மாணப் பெரிது.

காலத்தி னாற்செய்த = Timely help

A five hundred rupees help to a sickly man to buy a life saving medicine is much more than a five thousand rupees help done for his funeral.

India's military intervention to liberate Bangladesh was a 'timely help.'

SOS signals from distressed ships are the cries for 'timely help'.

SOS drugs prescribed  to patients are meant  for  'timely help' 

Even the decision taken by  US President Truman  to drop atomic bombs on Japan during the Second World war was a ' timely help' to the Allied forces to win the war against super aggressive Japan. If war had not ended, Japan would have  done more damage to the world countries. It was unfortunate that the bombs killed lakhs of  people but the second world war came to an end. Even though the usage of atomic bombs is not agreed by right thinking  people, it appears,  "the end justified the means." ( Machavelli) 

The parameter for the 'timely help'  is the ' time '  more than the help. 

Even the least help becomes greater than the world,  if it is done during  a critical time.

Those who  have done timely help are ' noble  souls', whether a  help or timely help, if  forgotten ,  according to  Thiruvalluvar there is no salvation for them.

Kural 110

There will be salvation for those who have forgotten all other virtues,

But no salvation  for those who have forgotten  the ' help'  done by others.

In this Kural Thiruvalluvar advises those who have received the  helps to be grateful

My friend who returned me the envelop  with multipled amount after so many years is an example for this kural. He had not forgotten the  help, " he is a noble soul."

In Tamil

                                         

எந்நன்றி கொன்றார்க்கும் உய்வுண்டாம் உய்வில்லை
செய்ந்நன்றி கொன்ற மகற்கு. (110)

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