Catukkanipāta 182

Numbered Discourses 4.182

19. Brahmins

Guarantee

1 “There are four things that no one can guarantee—not an ascetic, a brahmin, a god, a Māra, a divinity, or anyone in the world.

2 What four? No one can guarantee that someone liable to old age will not grow old. No one can guarantee that someone liable to sickness will not get sick. No one can guarantee that someone liable to death will not die. No one can guarantee that the bad deeds done in past lives—corrupting, leading to future lives, hurtful, resulting in suffering and future rebirth, old age, and death—will not produce their result.

3 These are the four things that no one can guarantee—not an ascetic, a brahmin, a god, a Māra, a divinity, or anyone in the world.”