Having cast off the body, O sovereign, kinsmen, friends, and sons turn back the way they came, like birds abandoning a tree stripped of flowers and fruit. Only a man's own deeds follow him once he is cast upon the funeral pyre. Therefore people should earn the merit of righteousness carefully and by degrees. Above this world, and likewise below it, there are realms of great gloom and darkness. Know, O king, that these are realms where the senses of men are utterly overwhelmed. Oh, may none of these places become your lot! If, having attentively heard these words, you are able to act in accordance with them, you will gain great fame in this world of the living, and fear will not be yours, either here or hereafter. O Bharata, the self is spoken of as a river; its sacred bathing places are the virtues of religion; truth is its water; self-control, its banks; kindness, its waves. The righteous man purifies himself by bathing there, for the self is sacred, and freedom from desire is the highest merit. O king, life is a river whose waters are the five senses, and whose crocodiles and sharks are desire and anger. Steering your raft, cross over its whirlpools, which are none other than repeated births!