II h. Even if you are the change! (2.26-2.28)

even if you think
the self is recycled
from birth to death
like colours of dusk and dawn
or a beautiful rainbow
why worry?

That which has begun
has to have an end
and that which has ended
revives again
death is certain
of that which is born
and birth is certain
of that which dies
its all just a play of energy
the same water rising
the wave that rises
has to have a fall
and the fallen crest
bound to rise again

sometimes as one wave
sometimes as other...
like an abstract feeling
unspoken before words express it
and unspoken even after the attempt to express!
the abstract going to the abstract
through the forms in between
why worry about so?

events come and events go
feelings come and feelings go
from the ocean, to the ocean
waves but on the surface!
why worry about what you are not!


Mahatma Gandhi's version
26. And if thou deemest This to be always coming to birth and always dying, even then, O Mahabahu, thou shouldst not grieve.
27. For certain is the death of the born, and certain is the birth of the dead; therefore what is unavoidable thou shouldst not regret.
28. The state of all beings before birth is unmanifest; their middle state manifest; their state after death is again unmanifest. What occasion is there for lament, O Bharata?


Sanskrit

Atha chainam nitya jaatam nityam vaa manyase mrutam
tathaapi tvam mahaabaaho nainam shochitumarhasi (2.26)

Jaatasya hi dhruvomrutyurdhruvam janma mrutasya cha
tasmaadaparihaaryerthe na tvam shochitumarhasi (2.27)

avyaktaadini bhootani vyaktamadhyaani bhaarata
avyaktanidhananyeva tatra kaa paridevana(2.28)