The Great Epic of the Bhārata dynasty 12.318.2

12.318.2

svabhāvādyatnamātiṣṭhedyatnavānnāvasīdati |
jarāmaraṇarogebhyaḥ priyamātmānamuddharet || 2 ||

"'Narada said, When the vicissitudes of happiness and sorrow appear or disappear, the transitions are incapable of being prevented by either wisdom or policy or exertion. Without allowing oneself to fall away from one's true nature, one should strive one's best for protecting one's own Self. He who betakes himself to such care and exertion, has never to languish. Regarding Self as something dear, one should always seek to rescue oneself from decrepitude, death, and disease. Mental and physical diseases afflict the body, like keen-pointed shafts shot from the bow by a strong bowman. The body of a person that is tortured by thirst, that is agitated by agony, that is perfectly helpless, and that is desirous of prolonging his life, is dragged towards destruction. Days and nights are ceaselessly running bearing away in their current the periods of life of all human beings. Like currents of rivers, these flow ceaselessly without ever turning back. The ceaseless succession of the lighted and the dark fortnights is wasting all mortal creatures without stopping for even a moment in this work. Rising and setting day after day, the Sun, who is himself undecaying, is continually cooking the joys and sorrows of all men. The nights are ceaselessly going away, taking with them the good and bad incidents that befall man, that depend on destiny, and that are unexpected by him.