Kindness Seeks No Return: 10 Verses from the Kural on Ethics and Right Action in Everyday Life

In the Tamil-speaking world, rooted in the state of Tamil Nadu in south India, the Kural is revered as a guide for how to practice compassion, goodness, and good sense in the nitty-gritty of daily life—from the life of the home, to the work of leaders, to the ways of love in our heart. Its great practicality, openness, and ecological wisdom make it astonishingly relevant to our time.

Yet this masterpiece of world literature, on par with the Tao Te Ching and the poetry of Rumi, has long lacked translations that make its guidance, vision, and playfulness available to readers in English. In this set of 10 short videos, translator and teacher Thomas Hitoshi Pruiksma shares 10 key verses on enacting love and kindness in the nitty gritty of actual life. These are verses to both savor and practice, in the world and in the depths of our hearts.

Thomas Hitoshi Pruiksma is an author, translator, teacher, and performer. His translation of the classical Tamil masterpiece on ethics, power, and love, The Kural: Tiruvalluvar’s Tirukkural, was published by Beacon Press. Other books include The Safety of Edges (poems), Give, Eat, and Live: Poems of Avvaiyar (translated from the Tamil) and Body and Earth (with the artist C.F. John). He speaks and performs widely, teaches for the Cozy Grammar series of online video courses, and has received grants and fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, 4Culture, Artist Trust, and the U. S. Fulbright Program. thomaspruiksma.com