1So I have heard. At one time the Buddha was staying near Rājagaha, in the Bamboo Grove, the squirrels’ feeding ground. There the Buddha addressed the mendicants: “Mendicants!”

“Venerable sir,” they replied. The Buddha said this:

2“Mendicants, the life span of humans is short. You must go to the next life. So you should do what is skillful, you should practice the spiritual life. No-one born is immortal. A long life is a hundred years or a little more.”

3Then Māra the Wicked went up to the Buddha and addressed him in verse:

4“The life of humans is long!
A good person wouldn’t scorn it.
Live like a suckling babe,
for Death has not come for you.”

5“The life of humans is short,
and a good person scorns it.
They should live as though their head was on fire,
for Death comes for everyone.”

6Then Māra … vanished right there.

1Evaṁ me sutaṁ— ekaṁ samayaṁ bhagavā rājagahe vihārati veḷuvane kalandakanivāpe. Tatra kho bhagavā bhikkhū āmantesi: "bhikkhavo"ti.

"Bhadante"ti te bhikkhū bhagavato paccassosuṁ. Bhagavā etadavoca: 

2"Appamidaṁ, bhikkhave, manussānaṁ āyu. Gamanīyo samparāyo, kattabbaṁ kusalaṁ, caritabbaṁ brahmacariyaṁ. Natthi jātassa amaraṇaṁ. Yo, bhikkhave, ciraṁ jīvati, so vassasataṁ appaṁ vā bhiyyo"ti.

3Atha kho māro pāpimā yena bhagavā tenupasaṅkami; upasaṅkamitvā bhagavantaṁ gāthāya ajjhabhāsi: 

4"Dīghamāyu manussānaṁ,
na naṁ hīḷe suporiso;
Careyya khīramattova,
natthi maccussa āgamo"ti.

5"Appamāyu manussānaṁ,
hīḷeyya naṁ suporiso;
Careyyādittasīsova,
natthi maccussa nāgamo"ti.

6Atha kho māro … pe … tatthevantaradhāyīti.