Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol. 5


Old Age

 

[1]

 

Why this laughter? Why this merriment? When there is always this fire that consumes you are enveloped by darkness and you do not seek the light.

 

[2]

 

Look at this decorated image, the body full of sores, a heaped mass, diseased, full of vagaries with no stable status.

 

[3]

 

This form is decrepit, given to diseases, a mass of corruption, it breaks up – life ends in death.

 

[4]

 

What lure can there be at the sight of these bones white as dovefeather, that are thrown away like gourds in autumn.

 

Page 217


[5]

 

A fortress has been made of bones and it is plastered with flesh and blood. Age and Death, pride and deceit are installed there.

 

[6]

 

Even the gaudy regal chariots wear out. Age reaches the body too. But Truth and Righteousness do not age; they are passed on from sage to sage.

 

[7]

 

A man with little knowledge grows old like an ox. His flesh increases, his intelligence does not.

 

[8]

 

The cycle of numberless births have I entered and I have not found the builder of this house, even though I have been out in search of him. The cycle of births is a misery!

 

[9]

 

I have found Thee, O Maker of the house! Thou wilt not build me a house again. All the beams are broken, the top­dome has toppled down. The mind is freed of all its obscure innate movements: desires have ended.

 

[10]

 

If you have not led a life of self-control, if you have not acquired wealth in your youth, you will perish like an old heron in a pond emptied of fish.

 

[11]

 

If you have not led a life of self-control, if you have not acquired wealth in your youth, you will lie like a worn out bow lamenting over the past.

 

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