PART I. VIRTUE - Ascetic Virtue
Chapter. 34. Instability
Kural - 331
Lowest and meanest lore, that bids men trust secure,
In things that pass away, as things that shall endure!
That ignorance which considers those things to be stable which are not so, is dishonourable (to the wise).
Kural - 332
As crowds round dancers fill the hall, is wealth's increase;
Its loss, as throngs dispersing, when the dances cease.
The acquisition of wealth is like the gathering together of an assembly for a theatre; its expenditure is like the breaking up of that assembly.
Kural - 333
Unenduring is all wealth; if you wealth enjoy,
Enduring works in working wealth straightway employ.
Wealth is perishable; let those who obtain it immediately practise those (virtues) which are imperishable.
Kural - 334
As 'day' it vaunts itself; well understood, 'tis knife',
That daily cuts away a portion from thy life.
Time, which shows itself (to the ignorant) as if it were something (real) is in the estimation of the wise (only) a saw which cuts down life.
Kural - 335
Before the tongue lie powerless, 'mid the gasp of gurgling breath,
Arouse thyself, and do good deeds beyond the power of death.
Let virtuous deeds be done quickly, before the biccup comes making the tongue silent.
Kural - 336
Existing yesterday, today to nothing hurled!-
Such greatness owns this transitory world.
This world possesses the greatness that one who yesterday was is not today.
Kural - 337
Who know not if their happy lives shall last the day,
In fancies infinite beguile the hours away!
Innumerable are the thoughts which occupy the mind of (the unwise), who know not that they shall live another moment.
Kural - 338
Birds fly away, and leave the nest deserted bare;
Such is the short-lived friendship soul and body share.
The love of the soul to the body is like (the love of) a bird to its egg which it flies away from and leaves empty.
Kural - 339
Death is sinking into slumbers deep;
Birth again is waking out of sleep.
Death is like sleep; birth is like awaking from it.
Kural - 340
The soul in fragile shed as lodger courts repose:-
Is it because no home's conclusive rest it knows?
It seems as if the soul, which takes a temporary shelter in a body, had not attained a home.