20-21. The wise always adopt means for the preservation of the body; even those afflicted with diseases such as leprosy do not wish to give it up.

It should be guarded for the sake of duty; duty for the sake of knowledge; knowledge for the sake of Yoga-meditation,--then he is soon released.

22-23. If he does not guard himself against harm who else will? Therefore should he look after his own benefit.

He who does not take precautions against the diseases of hell while here; afflicted with disease and having gone to a country where there is no medicine, what will he do?

24-25. Old age comes on like a tigress; life goes like water from a broken pot; diseases attack like foes. Therefore should he strive for the best.

So long as misery does not come, so long as calamity does not befall, so long as the senses are not decayed, so long should he strive for the best.

26-32. So long as the body lasts, so long should truth be pursued,--the stupid man digs his well when the corner of his house is already afire.

The time of death is not known by those who are variously embodied in the world of change. Alas! a man, between happiness and misery, does not know his own benefit.

Though seeing those just born, the afflicted, the dead, those whom calamity has befallen, and the miserable, people are never afraid, having drunk the liquor of delusion.

Riches are like unto a dream; youth is like a flower, life is fickle as lightning,--where is there a discerning one who is at ease?

Even a hundred years of life is very little, and half of it is sleep and idleness, and even that little is unfruitful owing to the miseries of childhood, disease and old age.

He does not do what ought to be done; when he should be awake he sleeps; where he should fear he confides. Alas! what man is not stricken.

How shall the individual who has taken a body, which is like foam on water and is attached to passing objects, be free from fear?

33-35. He who does not know what is good for him thinks the harmful beneficial, the impermanent permanent, and the evil good;

Though seeing, he falters; though hearing, he does not understand; though reading, he does not know; bewildered by the divine magic.

This universe is immersed in the boundless ocean of death,--though grasped by the crocodiles of death, disease and old age, he does not understand.

36-38. Time, though wearing away with every moment, is unnoticed, just as an unbaked pot placed in water disappears imperceptibly.

Air may be enclosed, ether may be split; waves may be bound,--life cannot be made permanent.

Earth is burnt away by time; even Meru is reduced to powder; the water of the ocean is dried away--what shall be said of the body?

39-41. The wolf of death forcibly slays the lamb of a mortal, who prates of "my offspring; my wife; my wealth; my relatives."