Saint Vallalar in his Deiva Manimalai talks of the impermanence of life, said M.A. Manickavelu in a discourse. He says the body has nine holes, through which dirt is expelled. Just as water in a waterfall comes gushing down, so will the body drop down dead one day. As lightning is there for a second and gone the next, so is this body impermanent. Just as the flame of a lamp is put out by the wind, so does life suddenly come to an end. Like a piece of cotton tossed here and there by a mighty wind, like clouds disturbed and scattered by the wind, the body caught in samsara dies one day. Once a hatchling emerges out of an egg, the shell is of no use any more. Likewise, once the atma exits the body, the body becomes useless. Life is like a dream. It is like letters written on water.
Vallalar says that he saw God in his mind, and yet he hadn’t lost his attachment to the body. A verse in Tirumoolar’s Tirumantiram says that when life leaves the body, the nine holes in the body will close. Relatives will be beside the body for a while and will leave after crying for the departed soul. Appar cries out to Lord Siva and says that when the nine holes in the body close, he will not be able to think of the Lord. “So, let me reach Your feet now,” says Appar. Pattinathar says the body becomes a fistful of ash when one dies, and prays to be saved. Naladiyar says that bubbles, formed when rain water hits the ground, soon disappear. So does life end. He who realises this becomes an unparalleled jnani. Echoing this idea, Kumaraguruparar also says that life ends just as water bubbles disappear. Manickavachagar says that because of karma, he took several births as a blade of grass, as a worm, a tree, as birds, snakes etc. The way to avoid these repeated births is to seek the feet of God.