688
Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam
[Canto 1, Ch. 13]
supreme authority. No friend, no children, no father, no brother, no state and no one else can protect a person who is not protected by the Supreme Lord. One should, therefore, seek the protection of the Supreme Lord, for the human form of life is meant for seeking that protection. He was warned of his precarious conditions more and more by the following words.
TEXT 22
अन्धः पुरेव वधिरो मन्त्रप्रज्ञाश्च साम्प्रतं । विशीर्णं वन्तो मन्दाग्निः सरागः कफमुद्वहन् ॥२२॥
andhaḥ puraiva vadhiro manda-prajñāś ca sāmpratam viśīrṇa danto mandāgniḥ sarāgaḥ kapham udvahan
andhaḥ—blind; pura—from the beginning; eva—certainly; vadhiraḥ—hard of hearing; manda-prajñāḥ—memory shortened; ca—and; sāmpratam—recently; viśīrṇaḥ—loosened; dantaḥ—teeth; manda-agniḥ—liver action decreased; sarāgaḥ—with sound; kapham—coughing with mucus; udvahan—coming out.
TRANSLATION
You have been blind from your very birth, and recently you have become hard of hearing. Your memory is shortened, and your intelligence is disturbed. Your teeth are loose, your liver is defective, and you are coughing up mucus.
PURPORT
The symptoms of old age, which had already developed in Dhṛtarāṣṭra, were all one after another pointed out to him as warning that death was nearing very quickly, and still he was foolishly carefree about his future. The signs pointed out by Vidura in the body of Dhṛtarāṣṭra were signs of  apakṣaya , or dwindling of the material body before the last stroke of death. The body is born, it develops, stays, creates other bodies, dwindles and then vanishes. But foolish men want to make a permanent settlement of the perishable body and think that their estate, children, society,