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Look, this body changes every instant. Who is not caught in the
cycle of childhood, youth and old age? Modern scientists say that in
seven years the whole body changes, and that not even a drop of the
old blood remains. Our ancestors believed that the old body dies in
twelve years. That is why they fixed the period for penance (prayaschitta),
austerity (tapascharya) or study (adhyayana) as twelve
years. We hear stories of how a son meets his mother after many
years of separation, and the mother cannot recognize him.
This body that changes every moment,
dies every moment, is this your true form? Night and day, the sewers
of your body keep flowing, and even in spite of your indefatigable
scavenging it never gives up its uncleanliness; is this body you? It
is unclean; it is you who wash it. It is sickly; it is you that
treat it with medicine and water. It fills three and a half cubits
of space: you sport in the three worlds.
It is liable to endless changes; you
witness these changes. It is liable to death; and you ordain it.
When the distinction between it and you is so clear, why do you
shrink into such smallness? Why do you say that only that which is
related to your body belongs to you? And why grieve so much for the
death of the body? The Lord asks, "My friend, is the
destruction of the body a cause for grief?"
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