The Kural in life
Four shadows that never leave.
Valluvar lists the standing cost of the trespass. Four evils never once leave the person who violates another's home: hatred, sin, fear, and lasting disgrace. They are not occasional penalties but permanent companions — the moment one crosses that line, these four move in and do not move out.
Parimelazhagar: and so both worlds are lost.
Parimelazhagar names the four exactly — enmity (from the wronged), sin, fear, and the disgrace that clings to one's family — and draws the conclusion the verse implies: with these four inseparable, the person loses the good of this world and the next alike. The act buys a package of consequences that cannot be unbundled.
The afterlife of one decision.
Beyond any external punishment, Valluvar maps the internal climate such an act creates: the enmity of those wronged, the weight of the wrong itself, the constant low-grade fear of exposure, and a name that no longer comes clean. People imagine the act as a single event; he shows it as a long sentence served afterward. The four shadows are why what felt like a moment becomes a way of life.
Hatred, sin, fear, and disgrace move in for good with this one wrong.
Valluvar lists the standing cost: four evils never leave the one who violates another's home — hatred, sin, fear, and lasting disgrace. Parimelazhagar names them (the wronged's enmity, sin, fear, family disgrace) and draws the conclusion: with these four inseparable, both worlds are lost. The act buys a package of consequences that can't be unbundled.
Count the four permanent companions before, not after.
Picture the lasting climate such an act creates — the enmity of those you wronged, the weight of the wrong, the constant fear of exposure, a name that never comes clean. People imagine the act as one moment; it's actually a long sentence served afterward. Count those four shadows before you act, because once in, they don't move out.