# XXXIV: The Vanity of All Things explained — The Kural

> Chapter companion for The Kural by Thiruvalluvar.

## What happens

This chapter reflects on the transient nature of worldly prosperity and life itself, urging immediate action toward lasting good deeds and spiritual awareness, using metaphors like a village show, time as a saw, and the soul's temporary shelter in the body.

## Themes in this chapter

### The Vanity of Worldly Life

The entire chapter is devoted to the theme that worldly prosperity and life are transient, urging detachment and good deeds.

## Character check-ins

### the Kural

The chapter presents verses from the Kural on the vanity of worldly life.

## Key lines

> There is no greater folly than the infatuation that looketh upon the transient as if it were everlasting.

The greatest foolishness is to treat temporary things as if they were permanent.

_Opening verse establishing the central theme of impermanence._

> Make haste to do good works before the tongue is paralysed and hiccup ariseth in the throat.

Act quickly to perform virtuous deeds before death silences you.

_Urgency of moral action in the face of mortality._

> Death is like unto a sleep: and life is like the waking after that sleep.

Death resembles sleep, and life is like awakening from that sleep.

_Metaphor comparing death and life to sleep and waking._

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_kural_se/chapters/xxxiv-the-vanity-of-all-things
- Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_kural_se
- All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_kural_se/chapters