For one of desires insatiate
who gathers only pleasure-flowers,
for one who has a clinging mind
Death the sovereign overpowers.
Explanation: Those who pursue worldly pleasures are like garland-makers who pick flowers here and there in the garden according to their preference. Those given to pleasures of the senses are not satisfied. They seek still more. In consequence of their endless pleasure-seeking they come under the spell of Antaka, or ‘ender of all’, i.e. death.
The Story of Patipujika Kumari (Verse 48)
While residing at the Jetavana Monastery, the Buddha spoke this verse, with reference to Patipujika Kumari.
Patipujika Kumari was a lady from Savatthi. She married at the age of sixteen and had four sons. She was a virtuous as well as a generous lady, who loved to make offerings of food and other requisites to the monks. She would often go to the monastery and clean up the premises, fill the pots and jars with water and perform other services. Patipujika also possessed Jatissara Knowledge (remembrance of past births) through which she remembered that in her previous existence she was one of the numerous wives of Malabhari, in the deva world of Tavatimsa. She also remembered that she had passed away from there when all of them were out in the garden enjoying themselves, picking flowers. So, every time she made offerings to the monks or performed any other meritorious act, she would pray that she might be reborn in the Tavatimsa realm as a wife of Malabhari, her previous husband.
One day, Patipujika fell ill and passed away that same evening. As she had so ardently wished, she was reborn in Tavatimsa deva world as a wife of Malabhari. As one hundred years in the human world is equivalent to just one day in Tavatimsa world, Malabhari and his other wives were still in the garden enjoying themselves and Patipujika was barely missed by them. So, when she rejoined them, Malabhari asked her where she had been the whole morning. She then told him about her passing away from Tavatimsa, her rebirth in the human world, her marriage to a man and also about how she had given birth to four sons, her passing away from there and finally her return to Tavatimsa.
When the monks learned about the death of Patipujika, they were stricken with grief. They went to the Buddha and reported that Patipujika, who was offering alms-food to them early in the morning, had passed away in the evening. To them the Buddha replied that the life of beings was very brief; and that before they have satisfied their desires for sensual pleasures, they were overpowered by death.