In plain words
Between the teeth, with great skill, the tongue keeps moving and is never crushed; it is good, friend, for man too to move just so; do not forget a good word such as this.
Describing human life, Śaṅkara remarked that on this stage of life man acts, rejoices, grieves, dies and vanishes.
Glittering on the lotus leaf, like a drop of water, it has no steadiness; the blight of attachment to life springs up, friend; the world is a curtain of worry and grief, friend.
Where there is Vairāgya, there is fearlessness
Human life is a house full of many kinds of attachment. Everything is sorrow; everything is disappointment! Everything is despair! Freedom from doubt is nowhere to be seen. Moment by moment the human body is full of doubts; moment by moment this human body is bound up with worry. Where is there freedom from fear for it? Wherever it goes, there is fear, fear.
Fear, fear, life is fear, brother! The lotus maze this world has laid for us! For men with nowhere to turn, for families broken down, are hardships their only kin? Are tears their only gifts? Fear, fear, life is fear.