Come, look upon this world
like to a rich , royal chariot
wherein fools lounge at ease
but alert ones linger not.
Explanation: The spiritually immature ones are fully engrossed in this world the glamour of which is deceptively like a decorated royal carriage. Those who are aware of reality do not cling to those worldly things. See the world as it really is.
The Story of Prince Abhaya (Verse 171)
While residing at the Veluvana Monastery, the Buddha spoke this verse, with reference to Prince Abhaya (Abhayaraja-kumara).
The story goes that Prince Abhaya suppressed an uprising on the frontier, which so pleased his father Bimbisara that when the prince returned, the king gave him an entertainment woman girl skilled in dancing and singing, and conferred the kingdom on him for seven days. Accordingly for seven days the prince did not leave the house, but remained within enjoying the splendour of majesty On the eighth day he went to the bathing-place on the river and bathed. Having so done, he entered his pleasure garden, sat down, like Santati the king’s minister, and watched that woman dance and sing. However, as soon as she began to dance and sing, at that moment, just as in the case of the entertainment woman belonging to Santati the king’s minister, sharp pains arose within her, and then and there she died.
Prince Abhaya was overwhelmed with sorrow at the death of this woman. Immediately the thought came to him, “With the single exception of the Buddha, there is no one who can extinguish my sorrow” So he approached the Buddha and said to him, “Venerable, please extinguish my sorrow.” The Buddha comforted him by saying, “Prince, in the round of existences without conceivable beginning, there is no counting the number of times this woman has died in this manner, and no measuring the tears you have shed as you have wept over her.” Observing that the prince’s grief was assuaged by the lesson, he said, “Prince, do not grieve: only immature folk allow themselves to sink in the sea of grief.”