how is it that thou livest as if thou art perfectly hale?  As soon as a creature is born, Decrepitude and Death pursue him for (effecting) his destruction.  All existent things, mobile and immobile, are affected by these two.  The attachment which one feels for dwelling in villages and towns (in the midst of fellowmen) is said to be the very mouth of Death.  The forest, on the other hand, is regarded as the fold within which the senses may be penned.  This is declared by the Srutis.[515] The attachment a person feels for dwelling in a village or town (in the midst of men) is like a cord that binds him effectually.  They that are good break that cord and attain to emancipation, while they that are wicked do not succeed in breaking them.  He who never injures living creatures by thought, word, or deed, is never injured by such agencies as are destructive of life and property.[516] Nothing can resist the messengers (Disease and Decrepitude) of Death when they advance except Truth which devours Untruth.  In Truth is immortality.[517] For these reasons one should practise the vow of Truth; one should devote oneself to a union with Truth; one should accept Truth for one’s Veda; and restraining one’s senses, one should vanquish the Destroyer by Truth.  Both Immortality and Death are planted in the body.  One comes to Death through ignorance and loss of judgment; while Immortality is achieved through Truth.  I shall, therefore, abstain from injury and seek to achieve Truth, and transgressing the sway of desire and wrath, regard pleasure and pain with an equal eye, and attaining tranquillity, avoid Death like an immortal.  Upon the advent of that season when the sun will progress towards the north, I shall restraining my senses, set to the performance of the Santi-sacrifice, the Brahma-sacrifice, the Mind-sacrifice, and the Work-sacrifice.[518] How can one like me worship his Maker in animal-sacrifices involving cruelty, or sacrifices of the body, such as Pisachas only can perform and such as produce fruits that are transitory?[519] That person whose words, thoughts, penances, renunciation, and yoga meditation, all rest on Brahma, succeeds in earning the highest good.  There is no eye which is equal to (the eye of) Knowledge.  There is no penance like (that involved in) Truth.  There is no sorrow equal to (that involved in) attachment.  There is no happiness (that which is obtainable from) renunciation.  I have sprung from Brahma through Brahma.  I shall devote myself to Brahma, though I am childless.  I shall return to Brahma.  I do not require a son for rescuing me.  A Brahmana can have no wealth like to the state of being alone, the state in consequence of which he is capable of regarding everything with an equal eye, the practice of truthfulness, good behaviour, patience, abstention from injury, simplicity, and avoidance of all rites and visible sacrifices.  What use hast thou, O Brahmana, of wealth or kinsmen and relatives, of wives, when thou shalt have to die?  Seek thy Self which is concealed in a cave.  Where are thy grandsires and where thy sire?’[520]