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atha cainaṁ nitya jātam nityaṁ vā manyase mṛtam |
tathāpi tvaṁ mahābāho naivaṁ śocitum arhasi || 26 ||
26. Or, if you consider this Self to be repeatedly born and repeatedly dying, even then, O
Maha-bahu (Mighty-armed-one), it does not become you to feel grief.
jātasya hi dhruvo mṛtyur dhruvaṁ janma mṛtasya ca |
tasmād aparihārye ‘rthe na tvaṁ śocitum arhasi || 27 ||
27. For death is indeed certain for everything that is born, and re-birth is certain for that
which has died; therefore you should not grieve for what is unavoidable.
Everything that is produced is certain to be destroyed — it has been proven to be
unavoidable. Similarly, whatever has perished will inevitably be remanifest. How, it may
be asked, should this be understood — that there is re-birth for that [entity] which has
perished? Origination, annihilation etc., are merely particular states of existence. With
regard to an entity which has entered into a stage known as origination, its transition into
the opposite condition is called ‘annihilation’. All evolving entities pass through an
inevitable sequence of evolutionary stages. For example, clay exists as a lump, jug, a
potsherd, and (finally) powder. Here, ‘annihilation’ refers to the transition to a succeeding
stage by something which existed previously in a preceding stage. And the annihilation of
one particular state is really birth for the next stage in the sequence.
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