राय: कलत्रं पशव: सुतादयो गृहा मही कुञ्जरकोशभूतय: । सर्वेऽर्थकामा: क्षणभङ्गुरायुष: कुर्वन्ति मर्त्यस्य कियत् प्रियं चला: ॥ ३९ ॥
rayah kalatram pasavah sutadayo grha mahi kunjara-kosa-bhutayah sarve ’rtha-kamah ksana-bhangurayusah kurvanti martyasya kiyat priyam calah
- rayah
- wealth
- kalatram
- one’s wife and feminine friends
- pasavah
- domestic animals like cows, horses, asses, cats and dogs
- suta-adayah
- children and so on
- grhah
- big buildings and residences
- mahi
- land
- kunjara
- elephants
- kosa
- treasury house
- bhutayah
- and other luxuries for sense gratification and material enjoyment
- sarve
- all
- artha
- economic development
- kamah
- and sense gratification
- ksana-bhangura
- perishable in a moment
- ayusah
- of one whose duration of life
- kurvanti
- effect or bring
- martyasya
- of one who is destined to die
- kiyat
- how much
- priyam
- pleasure
- calah
- flickering and temporary
One’s riches, beautiful wife and female friends, one’s sons and daughters, one’s residence, one’s domestic animals like cows, elephants and horses, one’s treasury, economic development and sense gratification—indeed, even the lifetime in which one can enjoy all these material opulences—are certainly temporary and flickering. Since the opportunity of human life is temporary, what benefit can these material opulences give to a sensible man who has understood himself to be eternal?