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THE REFLECTIONS
accompany the self to the next birth. The friends who have shared the joys and sorrows of an individual cannot save him at his death. His relations all united together cannot give him relief when he is afflicted by ailment. But if he accumulates merit or virtue, it will help him to cross the ocean of misery. Even the lord of devas cannot help anyone at the point of death. Therefore virtue is the only means of succour to one in the midst of misery. Friends, wealth, etc. are also transient. And so there is nothing else except virtue which offers succour to the self. To contemplate thus is the reflection on helplessness. He, who is distressed at the thought that he is utterly helpless, does not identify himself with thoughts? of worldly existence. And he endeavours to march on the path indicated by the Omniscient Lord. (2)
Transmigration is the attainment of another birth by the self owing to the ripening of karmas. The five kinds of whirling round have been described already. He, who wanders in the endless cycle of births and deaths, undergoing millions of afflictions in innumerable wombs and families, takes different relationships such as father, brother, son, grandson, 'etc., or mother, sister, wife, daughter and so on, being propelled by the mechanism of karmas. The master becomes servant and the servant master, just as an actor acts several parts on the stage. To be brief, sometimes one becomes one's own son. There is no end to the transformations undergone by the self owing to the influence of karmas. Thus to reflect on the nature of mundane existence is contemplation on worldly existence. He who contemplates thus is alarmed at the miseries of transmigration and becomes disgusted with worldly existence. And he who is disgusted with it endeavours to free himself from it. (3)
'I am alone in suffering severe pain in the successive recurTence of birth, old age and death. There is none who is my friend or foe. I am born alone. I die alone. No one else, whether relations or others, takes away my manifold sufferings such as disease, old age and death. Relations and friends can't
1 or with the objects of wordly existence.
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