Thiruvalluvar's Couplets On Penance Poem by Rajendran Muthiah

261.It’s penance to endure penitential pains
And not to harm others.

2.Penance is apt for austere minds.
It’s vain to practise for others.

3.To give the needs to ascetics
Have others forgotten penance?

4.If they willed, they’d doom their foes
And cause a boom to friends.

5.As they won, what they wish,
They do the tough tasks of penance.

6.The ascetics attain their ends.
Others trapped in passions do it in vain.

7.The pain of penance refines the souls
As gold glows on heating.

8.Life on earth bow to him
Who attains self-control.

9.Those who felt the power of penance
Evade the noose of Fate.

270.Doers(of penance) are few as the rich(on earth)
But dodgers are many as the poor.