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Preface
For happiness, the man must calm down his cravings; no use worrying about wealth, family and other relations, and the body. These will perish in a jiff. Wrapped in the body of life and death, he is being tormented like the insect trapped in the hollow log of castor-wood burning at both ends. (verses 61-63) Make your soul happy by mastering the senses. Adopt right conduct and you will wash off your sins. On being liberated, you will enjoy excellent bliss. (verse 64)
The poor are unhappy due to lack of wealth and the rich are unhappy due to discontentment. Only the self-dependent ascetics are happy. The selfimposed infliction (like fasting) is better than the happiness which is dependent. The ascetics are endowed with independence in roaming and partaking of food. They spend their time in the study of the Scripture and are engrossed in the contemplation of the Self. At the end of their life, they give up their body by relinquishing food as per the prescribed method. (verses 65-68)
By no means can the body be protected from destruction; insistence on protecting it is futile. Through these essentially perishable age (āyuh) and body (kāyā), the wise men attain the eternal state (of liberation). But the ignorant considers his soul to be free from decay and death. He sees his life as enduring, as the person sailing in the boat sees himself as nonmoving. (verses 69-72) The life is till inhalation exists and its cessation is death. The living beings are the fruits falling down from the palm-tree, the seat of birth, to the earth, the ground of death. In such a short duration of life, where is the happiness for the living beings? Neither the creator-minister (Brahmā or karmas) nor the king-of-kings (cakravarti) are able to secure the human beings. With completion of the age-karma (āyuḥ), no one can escape death. Indeed, no one is more powerful than karmas when these get to fruition. No one can come to the rescue of the worldly beings. Wicked death is certain to strike; it cannot be guessed as to when, how, whence, and where. Therefore, be vigilant. Better still, scout an abode where there is no death. (verses 73-79)
The female body is like the cluster of flames that burns down merit
(XXV)
