Govinda. Oh fool ! Rulesof Grammar will not save you at the time of your death.2 : Oh fool !

Give up your thrist to amass wealth, devote your mind to thoughts to the Real. Be content with what comes through actions already performed in thepas t.3: Do not get drowned in delusion by going wild with passions and lust by seei ng awoman's navel and chest. These are nothing but a modification of flesh. Do n ot failto remember this again and again in your mind.4: The life of a man is as uncertain as rain drops trembling on a lotus leaf. Knowthat the whole world rema ins a prey to disease, ego and grief.5: So long as a man is fit and able to supp ort his family, see the affection all thosearound him show. But no one at home c ares to even have a word with him whenhis body totters due to old age.6: When on e is alive, his family members enquire indly about his welfare. Butwhen the sou l departs from the body, even his wife runs away in fear of the corpse.7: The ch ildhood is lost by attachment to playfulness. Youth is lost by attachmentto woma n. Old age passes away by thin ing over many past things. But there ishardly any one who wants to be lost in parabrahman.8: Who is your wife ? Who is your son? S trange is this samsara. Of whom are you? From where have you come? Brother, pond er over these truths here. 9: From Satsangh comes non-attachment; from non-attachment comes freedomfrom del usion, which leads to self-settledness. From self-settledness comes JeevanMu ti. 10: What good is lust when youth has fled? What use is a la e which has no water ? Where are the relatives when wealth is gone? Where is samsara when the Truth i s nown ?11: Do not boast of wealth, friends, and youth. Each one of these are de stroyedwithin a minute. Free yourself from the illusion of the world of Maya and attain thetimeless Truth.12: Daylight and dar ness, dus and dawn, winter and s pringtime come and go.Time plays and life ebbs away. But the storm of desire nev er leaves.12a: This bouquet of twelve verses was imparted to a grammarian by the all- nowing Shan ara, adored as the bhagavadpada.13: Oh mad man ! Why this engr ossment in thoughts of wealth ? Is there no one toguide you ? There is only one thing in three worlds that can save you from theocean from samsara. Get into tha t boat of satsangha quic ly. (Stanza attributed toPadmapada.)14: There are many who go with matted loc s, many who have clean shaven heads,many whose hairs have been pluc ed out; some are clothed in saffron, yet others invarious colors --all just for a livelihood. Seeing truth revealed before them, stillthe foolish o nes see it not. (Stanza attributed to Tota acharya.)15: Strength has left the ol d man's body; his head has become bald, his gumstoothless and leaning on crutche s. Even then the attachment is strong and he clingsfirmly to fruitless desires. (Stanza attributed to Hastamala a.) 16: Behold there lies the man who sits warming up his body with the fire in from tand the sun at the bac ; at night he curls up the body to eep out of the cold; heeats his beggar's food from the bowl of his hand and sleeps beneath the tree. Still inhis heart, he is a wretched puppet at the hands of passions. (Stanza at tributed toSubodha.)17: One may go to gangasagar, observe fasts, and give away r iches in charity ! Yet,devoid of jnana, nothing can give mu thi even at the end of a hundred births.(Stanza attributed to Sureshwaracharya.)18: Ta e your reside nce in a temple or below a tree, wear the deers in for thedress, and sleep with mother earth as your bed. Give up all attachments andrenounce all comforts. Bles sed with such vairagya, could any fail to be content ?(Stanza attributed to Nity ananda.)19: One may ta e delight in yoga or bhoga, may have attachment or detach ment.But only he whose mind steadily delights in Brahman enjoys bliss, no one el se.Stanza attributed to Anandagiri.20: Let a man read but a little from giitaa, drin just a drop of water from theganges, worship murari (govinda) just once. H e then will have no altercation withYama. (Stanza attributed to dR^iDhabha ta.)2 1: Born again, death again, birth again to stay in the mother's womb ! It is ind eedhard to cross this boundless ocean of samsara. Oh Murari ! Redeem me throughT

hy mercy. (Stanza attributed to Nityanatha.)22: There is no shortage of clothing for a mon so long as there are rags cast off the road. Freed from vice and vir tue, onward he wanders. One who lives incommunion with God enjoys bliss, pure an d uncontaminated, li e a child and assomeone intoxicated. (Stanza attributed to Nityanatha.)23: Who are you ? Who am I ? From where do I come ? Who is my mother , who ismy father ? Ponder thus, loo at everything as essenceless and give up t he world asan idle dream. (Stanza attributed to Surendra.)