‘ You grieve for those beyond grief,
And you speak of words of insight;
But learned man do not grieve
For the dead or the living.
Never have I not existed
Nor you, nor these kings;
And never in the future
Shall we cease to exist.
Just as the embodied self
Enters childhood, youth, and old age,
So does it enter another body;
This does not confound a steadfast man.
Contacts with matter make us feel
Heat and cold, pleasure and pain.
Arjuna, you must learn to endure
Fleeting things – they come and go !
When these cannot torment a man,
When suffering and joy are equal
For him and he has courage,
He is fit for immortality.
Nothing of nonbeing comes to be,
Nor does being cease to exit;
The boundary between these two
Is seen by men who see reality.
Indestructible is the presence
That pervades all things;
No one can destroy
This unchanging reality…’
