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Chapter Thirteen owi 575 - 600
Beware of Old Age

People in neighborhood will
Wake up from sleep due to cough, and say,
The old man will exhaust everyone. 574
Who thus sees the warning of
Oncoming old age in the future while
He is still young, he will get disgusted in the mind. 575
“See, this is coming,” he says,
“Present days will be over in enjoyment.
What will then remain behind for betterment?” 576
So I shall hear everything to be heard,
As long as I am not deaf. I shall go where
I should go (places of pilgrimage), till I am not lame. 577
I shall see whatever is to be seen,
Till I loose my Vision. Before I become Dumb,
I shall recite all the well-spoken words. 578
The hands would get paralyzed.
He comes to know the glimpse of this.
So he completes donating and other noble things. 579
Such state will come in future
When mind will get to madness.
Before that I should think of Pure Knowledge. 580
The thieves would attack tomorrow,
So one departs from his wealth today.
Or before a lamp gets Extinguished,
One covers everything and keeps in order. 581
Like that, one would get old
And everything would be useless.
So he gets that done while still young. 582
In an area surrounded by forts,
In the evening, when birds return to the nest,
Instead of going further, if a traveler enters the fort,
Will he get fleeced? 583
Like that, old age will come, and
The life will go to waste.
One, who is hoping for hundred years of life,
How would he know that? 584
When you beat the already beaten sesame plant,
Would you get more seeds?
Or the fire, when extinguished into ashes,
Would it burn other things? 585
So, one who thinks of old age while young,
He defeats old age (makes it naked).
Understand he has the knowledge. 586
He could face many diseases in future.
So he makes the best use of health while it lasts. 587
The substance caught in the mouth of serpent
Is discarded by wise man.
Thus discarded is a friendship which
Nourishes separation, sorrow, calamity, and grief.
He happily stays neutral. 589
The doors through which forbidden
Behaviors may enter, those openings of actions
He closes permanently by strict restraints. 590
Hey Arjuna, whose behavior is in
The style thus described,
Understand, he is the owner of
The wealth of knowledge. 591
Now one more extraordinary attribute
I shall tell.
Arjuna, listen. 592
Asaktiranabhishvangaha putradaaragruhaadishu.
Nityam cha samachittatvamishtaanishtopapattishu. 9
A traveler settled in the house for a night
Is neutral about that house.
Who is thus neutral regarding his body, 593
A traveler has no attachment to
A shadow of tree met on the way,
Like that he has no love for his own house. 594
Your shadow is always with you.
But you never know it is there, and have no attachment.
Like that he has no attachment to woman. 595
The children he has, he considers them as
Travelers who have come to stay overnight.
Or like cattle sitting underneath the tree. 596
Arjuna, though he is amidst wealth,
He seems not attached to it, like a traveller witnessing
The things happening on the way. 597
What more should I say?
Like a parrot in the cage, he is
In the worldly life afraid of the orders of Vedas. 598
Who doesn’t love his wife, children, and home,
Understand he is the authority on the knowledge. 599
The ocean is equally filled
In the summer and in the winter. Thus
He considers desired and undesired equal. 600