Life span (ayu)

The verse names ten vital powers (prāṇa): the strengths of mind, speech and body, the five senses, breathing and life span (āyu); the separation of the embodied being from them is death. The commentary lists the senses as touch, taste, smell, sight and hearing.

A footnote says a being is called alive while these vital powers remain.

The commentary defines death (marana) as the soul's passage to another state of existence when its life span (ayu) is exhausted, and says that poison and the like are also called death in a measure because the causes of death are present in them; people afflicted by deluding (mohaniya) karma feel the fear of death very strongly.

The commentary says gods born in the upapāda bed and those attaining a final or excellent body obtain, by their merit, long-lived bodies that poison, weapons and the like cannot cut short, but that many humans now born have bodies that can be destroyed by poison or weapons.

Life is spoken of as wholesome, unwholesome, happy and unhappy, and Ayurveda is said to set out the nature of each, the signs of life span, its measure and the substances wholesome or unwholesome for life.

The learned physician should first know the patient's life span, then understand the disease fully, and then make methodical efforts to remove it.

A verse quoted from the Paitamaha, which is badly corrupt, appears to name exercise at the right time, drinking ghee, a measured quantity of food, sleep and non-injury to living beings as the foremost protection of life.

Charaka is cited for the saying that true non-violence comes from increasing the life (prana) of living beings, and the Paitamaha for timely exercise, drinking ghee and, after a gap in the print, non-injury to all beings as causes of protecting future life.

The physician is told to ascertain the patient's measure of life through questions, portents, omens, scripture, astrology (ascendant and lunar conjunctions), dreams and the words of those with divine knowledge, and then to make efforts at treatment.

Having judged the patient's fortune by the omens, the physician is told to go to the patient, examine all the marks of his body and, even if the patient is long-lived, consider how many years of his life have passed and how many remain.

Marks of long life are listed: very soft, fleshy, glossy hands and feet like aśoka shoots or lotuses, clean and with many auspicious lines; charming, long, fleshy ears; eyes like blue lotuses; teeth like pearls or juicy pomegranate seeds; glossy, high, long forehead and hair; long breath and gaze; strong arms; stout fingers, nails, face and nose; short tongue, throat, belly, penis and shanks; deep joints and navel; hidden ankles; a very broad chest; long spaces between the breasts and between the brows; hidden veins; a body that after bathing or anointing dries first in its upper part (leaving the head) and later below and at the head; freedom from disease since birth with steady growth; an intellect able to learn arts; firm senses; glossy, fine, soft hair; and sparse pores.

A person with all these marks is said to have abundant wealth and a full (long) life, one with half of them half a life, and one with contrary marks a short life; a person's age and health are judged by these very marks.

In the Kali age people are said mostly to have a life span of about a hundred years, as declared by the Jina.

The text says that protecting the body well increases life span, that growth of life and body increases the strength of the senses, and that without life and bodily strength all wealth is useless; this is the reason given for describing the preparation of mercury.

A footnote says this verse was found very corrupt even after consulting many copies.