Thirukkural- On Virtue- Compassion-Kural-250

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When one tends to become cruel to those under his control One should think of himself cowering before stronger men.

Here is another instance of Valluvar's practical approach to the problem of avoidance of sin and cultivation of virtue. No man understands the pain he causes to others, except when he empathetically pictures to himself the sufferings he has sustained at the hands of others stronger than him. Parimelalagar comments that the term 'Maeliyaar' though it directly applies only to human-beings, should be considered as applicable to all living things.

Even in those spacious days two millenniums ago, there probably were some bullies, who were cruel to their subordinates or to weaker people generally and cringed before their superiors, so giving rise to this thought in the mind of our poet.

One is reminded, in this context, of the parable in Matthew (18:23-34) of the King and his steward whose dues the King wrote off; while the latter was cruel to his servant, who owed him only a moiety of what the steward owed the king, and so the King found it necessary to step in and teach him a lesson.