In enjoyment, there is the fear of disease;
In social position, the fear of falling-off;
In wealth, the fear of hostile kings;
In honor, the fear of humiliation;
In power, the fear of foemen;
In beauty, the fear of old age;
In scriptural erudition, the fear of opponents;
In virtue, the fear of traducers; In body, the fear of death.
;
All the things of this world pertaining to man
Are attended with fear;
Renunciation alone stands for fearlessness.
Birth is attacked by death;
Brilliant youth by old age;
Contentment by greed;
Happiness of self-control
By the wiles of gay women;
Virtues by the jealousy of men;
Forest tracts by beasts of prey;
Kings by wicked counsel;
And powers even are vitiated
By their evanescence;
What on earth is not seized upon
By something else?
Health of men is rooted out
By hundreds of varied ailments
Of body and mind;
Whereupon Lakshmi,
The goddess of prosperity, alights:
There perils find an open access;
Death surely annexes to itself,
Rendering impotent very soon,
Whatever is born again and again.
Then what is created as stable
By the absolute Creator?
-- Vairagya Shatak by Bhartrihari (link)
-- Vairagya Shatak by Bhartrihari (link)
