slaked by knowledge has never to indulge
in grief. One attains to the status of the deities by means of good acts;
to the status of humanity by means of acts that are good and bad; while
by acts that are purely wicked, one helplessly falls down among the lower
animals. Always assailed by sorrow and decrepitude and death, a living
creature is being cooked in this world (in the cauldron of Time). Dost
thou not known it? Thou frequently regardest that to be beneficial which
is really injurious; that to be certain which is really uncertain; and
that to be desirable and good which is undesirable and not good. Alas,
why dost thou not awake to a correct apprehension of these? Like a
silkworm that ensconces itself in its own cocoon, thou art continually
ensconcing thyself in a cocoon made of thy own innumerable acts born of
stupefaction and error. Alas, why dost thou not awake to a correct
apprehension of thy situation? No need of attaching thyself to things of
this world. Attachment to worldly objects is productive of evil. The
silk-worm that weaves a cocoon round itself is at last destroyed by its
own act. Those persons that become attached to sons and spouses and
relatives meet with destruction at last, even as wild elephants sunk in
the mire of a lake are gradually weakened till overtaken by Death.
Behold, all creatures that suffer themselves to be dragged by the net of
affection become subject to great grief even as fishes on land, dragged
thereto by means of large nets! Relatives, sons, spouses, the body
itself, and all one's possessions stored with care, are unsubstantial and
prove of no service in the next world. Only acts, good and bad, that one
does, follow one to the other world. When it is certain that thou shalt
have to go helplessly to the other world, leaving behind thee all these
things alas, why dost thou then suffer thyself to be attached to such
unsubstantial things of no value, without attending to that which
constitutes thy real and durable wealth? The path which thou shalt have
to travel through is without resting places of any kind (in which to take
rest). There is no support along that way which one may catch for
upholding oneself. The country through which it passes is unknown and
undiscovered. It is, again enveloped in thick darkness. Alas, how shalt
thou proceed along that way without equipping thyself with the necessary
expenses? When thou shalt go along that road, nobody will follow thee
behind. Only