CHAPTER XVIII. Obloquy of the Body.
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Valmiki and Mitra, Viharilala
41. It is as tremulous as the leaves of a tree shaken by the breeze, and oppressed by diseases and fluctuations of pleasure and pain. I have no relish in its pungency and bitterness.
42. With all its food and drink for evermore, it is as tender as a leaflet and is reduced to leanness in spite of all our cares, and runs fast towards its dissolution.
43. It is repeatedly subjected to pleasure and pain, and to the succession of affluence and destitution, without being ashamed of itself as the shameless vulgar herd (at their ups and downs).
44. Why nourish this body any longer, when it acquires no excellence nor durability of its state, after its enjoyment of prosperity and exercise of authority for a length of time.
45. The bodies of the rich as well as those of the poor, are alike subject to decay and death at their appointed times.
46. The body lies as a tortoise in the cave of avarice amidst the ocean of the world. It remains there in the mud in a mute and torpid state, without an effort for its liberation.
47. Our bodies floating as heaps of wood on the waves of the world, serve at last for the fuel of funeral fire (on the pile); except a few of these which pass for human bodies in the sight of the wise.
48. The wise have little to do with this tree of the body, which is beset by evils like noxious orchids about it, and produces the fruit of perdition.
49. The body like a frog, lies merged in the mire of mortality, where it perishes no sooner it is known to have lived and gone.
50. Our bodies are as empty and fleeting as gusts of wind, passing over a dusty ground, where nobody knows whence they come, and whither they go.
51. We know not the course of our bodies (their transmigrations), as we do not know those of the winds, light and our thoughts; they all come and go, but from where and whither, we know nothing of.
52. Fie and shame to them, that are so giddy with the ebriety of their error, as to rely on any state or durability of their bodies.
53. They are the best of men, O sage! whose minds are at rest with the thought, that their ego does not subsist in their bodies, nor are the bodies theirs at the end (of their lives).
54. Those mistaken men that have a high sense of honor and fear dishonor, and take a pleasure in the excess of their gains, are verily the killers both of their bodies and souls.
55. We are deceived by the delusion of egoism, which like a female fiend (sorceress) lies hid within the cavity of the body with all her sorcery.
56. Our reason unaided (by religion) is kept in bondage like a female slave within the prison of our bodies, by the malicious fiend of false knowledge (or sophistry).
57. It is certain that whatever we see here is unreal, and yet it is a wonder, that the mass of men are led to deception by the vile body, which has injured the cause of the soul.
58. Our bodies are as fleeting as the drops of a water-fall, and they fall off in a few days like the withered leaves of trees.
59. They are as quickly dissolved as bubbles in the ocean; it is in vain therefore that it should hurl about in the whirlpool of business.
60. I have not a moment’s reliance in this body, which is ever hastening to decay; and I regard its changeful delusions as a state of dreaming.
61. Let those who have any faith in the stability of the lightning, of the autumn clouds, and in glacial castles, place their reliance in this body.
62. It has outdone all other things that are doomed to destruction in its instability and perishableness. It is moreover subject to very many evils; wherefore I have set it at naught as a straw, and thereby obtained my repose.