36. I am unable, O chief of sages! to drag my domicile of the body, just as a weak elephant is incapable to draw out another immerged in a muddy pit.
37. Of what good is affluence or royalty, this body and all its efforts to one, when the hand of time must destroy them all in a few days.
38. Tell me, O sage! what is charming in this body, that is only a composition of flesh and blood both within and without it and frail in its nature.
39. The body does not follow the soul upon death; tell me Sir, what regard should the learned have for such an ungrateful thing as this.
40. It is as unsteady as the ears of an infuriate elephant, and as fickle as drops of water that trickle on their tips. I should like therefore to abandon it, before it comes to abandon me.
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.