Chapter 13 - Verse 8

Absence of attachment : for sense-objects such as sound, for pleasures seen or unseen. Perception, etc. : thinking of what evil there is severally in birth, etc. Thus the evil in birth lies in having to dwell in the womb and to issue out through the uterus. Similarly in death. The evil of old age consists in the decay of intelligence, power and strength, and in being treated with contempt. So also may be seen the evil caused by sickness such as head-disease or the evil caused by pain, whether adhyatmika, i.e., arising in one’s own person, or adhibhautika, i.e., produced by external agents, or adhidaivika, i.e., produced by supernatural beings.

Or, the passage may be thus interpreted :—Pain itself is evil. Birth, etc., should be regarded as painful, as shewn above. Birth is a misery; death is a misery; old age is a misery; and sickness is a misery. Birth, etc., are all miseries, because they produce misery; they are not miseries in themselves.

From this perception of the evil of pain in birth, etc., there arises indifference to the pleasures of the body and of the senses; and then the senses turn towards the Innermost Self to obtain a glimpse of the Self. Because the perception of the evil of pain in birth, etc., conduces to knowledge, it is itself spoken of as knowledge.