40-41. The motionless body, left by the vital breath, becomes detestable and unfit to touch; foul smells soon arise in it, and it is disliked by everybody.

How can men, who perish in a moment, be proud of the body, with its three conditions,--worm, dung and ashes?

42-43. Earth is dissipated to earth; likewise water to water; fire is dissipated in fire; also air in air.

And, similarly, ether to ether: and the Self that is in the bodies is happy, all-pervading, eternally free, witness of the world, birthless and deathless.

44-45. The individual, possessing all the senses, surrounded with sense-objects of sound and the rest, clinging to desire and love, environed by the sheath of karma,

Endowed with good tendencies, enters a new body created by his own karma, as does a householder whose house has been burnt.

46-47: Then the messengers of the Shining Ones, resplendent with flashing plumes, arrive, bringing a chariot wreathed with countless bells,

And they, knowing the true righteousness, wise, always beloved by the righteous, carry him, who has performed the rites, away in their own chariot.

48. That great man, in a resplendent body, with shining garments and garlands, possessed of gold and diamond ornaments, by virtue of gifts attains heaven, and is honoured by the Holy Ones.

Footnotes

^76:1 Cowdung is extensively used in India as a purifier and antiseptic.

^77:1 Visnu.

^77:2 S'iva.

^78:1 When the people of the house are aware that one is about, to die they remove him from the couch to the ground.

^78:2 Siva.

^78:3 Water is the stone, and thus consecrated to Visnu.

^78:4 The heaven of Visnu.

^79:1 Here is a mystical suggestion.

^80:1 The Bhagvata Purana.

^80:2 Sannyasa, giving up attachment to worldly life and its objects.

^80:3 That is, truly says.