Not Being Angry (By St. Thiruvalluvar) Poem by Rajendran Muthiah

301.Where your anger wreaks havoc, there you’d restrain it.
Elsewhere what does it matter if you check it or not?
302.Being angry, where your anger works not, is harmful.
More harmful than anything else, where it works.
303.Who he may be, forget your ire against him;
As anger begets all evils.
304.Wrath kills smiles of face and delights of heart.
Is there anything more lethal than anger to one?
305.If one wants to shield oneself, shield against ire.
Or else the ire kills the one who breeds it.
306.The fire of ire destroys your near and dear ones.
And it will burn the protecting raft of your kinsmen.
307.One who nurses anger as something of some merit
Moans in pain as one who strikes at the earth.
308.Though one does harm you like stinging tongues of fire,
It is good to you not to feel anger against one.
309.If one doesn’t think of raging fires in one’s mind
One will get all the things, one’s heart desires.
310.Men of raging wrath are dead alike.
Men who renounce wrath are like sages.