Chapter 11: Gratitude

Chapter 11 Gratitude of benefits. This is a recording from Live on YouTube for the benefit of Tirukkural study group or the study group of Perennial wisdom.  

This chapter talks about the importance of acknowledging help

received and the value of different types of help received.  This comes out of Chapter 11 of the Sacred Couplets named "ThirukkuRaL" In this chapter, as always, there are 10 couplets emphasizing and explaining the importance of gratitude. 

Gratitude is the human nature of not forgetting the good done to us by others. And also human nature is to acknowledge it. As a matter of fact this gratitude is not just human nature.  To my knowledge even animals - if not all animals, there are animals which show gratitude Domestic animals - particularly dogs - all domesticated animals show gratitude. 

There is the famous story of Androcles and The Lion.  The lion remembers when Androcles helped it and hence wouldn't kill Androcles. So it's a natural feeling to show gratitude.
And the difference is as human beings we can openly say thanks and remember it. And when an occasion comes, you can return the help but at least we should have acknowledged and said thanks.  In this chapter three types of Good Deeds are mentioned as the most commendable acts. 

One is help rendered by one who did not receive any help before. This is help given not as a return of help received earlier. So, sometimes it happens. A total stranger, somebody who you haven't met before, and you are not likely to meet again, they come forward to help materially or in kind, but still it's a help. And then the second one is the timely help, which is given at the right time. There comes help without any hesitation and just when you're in dire need. And this could be from a stranger, or from a friend, from sibling, from a family or through an associate. It doesn't matter what the detailed help is. And then third is helping one without expecting any returns from the recipient.

So, this is slightly different from the first. One could be done by somebody, who has not received any help before, or somebody giving  a help but not with the reason or purpose or with an agenda.

The act of forgetting the help received and denying to acknowledge the help is mentioned as a crime that is totally unforgivable. This chapter is more about realising the help received than about returning the help. There is mention of the word help and the receiver, but none about the one who rendered the help. 

People of gratitude will embrace the very fact that the help was rendered without attributing any measure for the size or quantity of the help. One should forgive any harm done to themselves but shall forever remember any help received and keep in touch with those who rendered help. 

Immediately forget any harm ended by others. Even when one causes a big hurt, any small help given by that person would make one forget the hurt. 

It is emphatically stated that there is no recourse for one who forgets or fails to realize the help received. These are the points brought out in this particular chapter of 10 couplets.  Now we will talk about the paraphrase of the ten couplets. There are any number of translations, some poetic, some just an explanation, some with poetic translation and explanation. The one I'm getting here is from the one by Reverend G. U. Pope.  It is one of the earliest English translations of all the three volumes, three books of TirukkuRaL. This was done in the late part of the 19th century.   He was a British missionary, and before that it was done by Besche, an Italian missionary, and that translation was in Latin. 

Couplet 101: (The gift of) heaven and earth is not an equivalent for a benefit which is conferred where none had been received. So that means that that kind of help by one who has not been met by you before. 

A  good example is parents and particularly mother and we get help from them even though we have not given any help before. This author says, even heaven and earth cannot be equated to that kind of help.

Couplet 102: A favor conferred in the time of need, though it be small (in itself), is (in value) much larger than the world. So again t's a poetic exaggeration, but basically, the second type of help where help is given in time of need, and right on time, it may be a small help. Someplace we get stranded and we have we don't know what to do. Then some stranger comes with some form of help  you know it could be in any form. That timely help is so big that you can say that even the whole world given back in return for that kind of help is inadequate. 

Number 103, the third couplet in this chapter, if we weigh the Excellence of a benefit which is conferred without weighing return, it is larger than the sea. So this is a healthy one with no concern for the return, most of the Charities are supposed to be like that, you know, we are, we don't expect any return, we don't want experience, and we just want to help those in need. And so, if we see such somebody helps without expecting any return, then that is even larger than the sea. 

Couplet 104. Though the benefit conferred be as small as a grain seed, those who know its advantage will consider it as big as palm fruit. Cultured person will value the help not by the size of help but by the very fact that because it is given as a benefit and good, it would be valued much more than the actual size. 

Couplet 105. The benefit itself is not the measure of the benefit; the worth of those who have received it is its measure.   

So, here what it says is that  sometimes the help has to be given to those in need, but sometimes people who do not deserve the benefit and still, they are given the benefit.  So, the actual value of the benefit is not measured by the size of the benefit, but by the merit of the person who received it. 

We can think of examples, maybe we can read the comments column, you can add in those who are reading 80, participants members can add any examples in his stories fictitious or real event from their own life or from their friends life examples of these things which will help us strengthen the idea. 

Next couplet number 106: Forsake not the friendship of those who have been your staff in adversity. Forget not be benevolence of the blameless.  So, it is important to remember to thank.   

Gratitude is this feeling and remembering that and then also expressing the gratitude both are included.

Anybody who helped you when you were in difficulties, they have to be remembered forever. The wise will remember throughout their sevenfold births the love of those who wiped away their affliction. So again, some of it is exaggeration.  ”Sevenfold Births” could be interpreted in several ways.  This author and the Eastern Philosophy/Eastern religions they all believe in rebirth, reincarnation and it is even getting popular in western world also.  So 7 is just a number.  It means that if you're a wise person, the help of such benefits will be remembered for a long time and in other words, it's a good idea and the author is suggesting and recommending that if you want to be considered wise and if you want to be accepted by the society then you better remember the love of those  who helped.

Couplet number 8: While it is not good to forget a benefit; it is good to forget an injury even in the very moment (in which it is inflicted). And so, this is something to bear in mind: on the one hand it's very important not to forget any benefit that was done to help anyone.  But on the other hand, if by chance somebody hurts you, or you feel hurt for somebody the best thing is to forget it right away. And this is the way to have a happy and blessed life. 

Number 9, Though one inflicts an injury great as murder, it will perish before the thought of one benefit (formerly) conferred.

So again, this is our poetic exaggeration but basically even Big Hurt can be wiped off by thinking of one benefit.  If somebody has done lots of harm, but if you remember that instance where that person was of help that should help you to overcome the grief.

The last couplet number 10: He who has killed every virtue may yet escape; there is no escape for him who has killed a benefit. So this is a very powerful statement. There are several virtues which people violate or there are several bad deeds or sins which people commit but when it comes to gratitude this author says that for others, we can have recourse. You may be able to get pardoned, we may well forget. You may overcome those things but one who has forgotten this virtue of gratitude has absolutely no recourse.  That's the greatest sin and will get the greatest punishment. 

Notable features of this chapter:

Realizing the value of help received is praised; immeasurable tangible items like the earth, heaven and ocean are used as metaphors to indicate the value of help received; The distinction between help size price quantitative help rendered  and realizing the help; the value of the receiver is brought on by comparing them respectively to millet seed palm fruit. Eternal nature of the value of help is also brought up in terms of Seven Generations or seven reincarnations while praising the good nature of realizing and remembering the help received.  This chapter also brings out the height of the criminal nature of forgetting the help. one who forgets the help received is condemned to a judgment harsher than one who did the most heinous of evil. Such a person has absolutely no recourse or pardon.