The First Wife

The first wife is the body. Day and night, we love our body. In the morning, we dress it and get it ready for the day, making it presentable. We take care of our body just like the first wife in the story. But the reality is that our first wife cannot follow us into the next world. It must be returned to the earth from which it came.

The Second Wife

The second wife represents our material possessions: property, reputation, status, money. Often, we fear losing them and want to accumulate more. But at the end of life, we must let them go. Clinging to them is pure vanity.

The Third Wife

Believe it or not, the third wife is our relationship with family and society. Although saddened by our departure, they cannot do anything. The message is that in the end, we cannot take our body, wealth, or family with us. We are born alone and die alone.

The Fourth Wife

The only wife who follows us after death is the fourth. She represents the mind. At our death, we carry with us our happiness, anger, greed, compassion, empathy, and so on. Negative emotions are a form of karma that must be let go—either in this world or the next.
The fourth wife said to her dying husband: “I will follow you wherever you go.”

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So take great care of your fourth wife!