"'"Sakra said, 'Beholding this upraised arm of mine, equipped with the thunderbolt, and those nooses of Varuna, who is there whose understanding would not be agitated, including the very Destroyer himself that compasses the death of all beings? Thy understanding, however, so firm and so endued with vision of the truth, hath not been agitated. O thou of invincible prowess, verily, thou art unmoved today in consequence of thy fortitude. Beholding all things in this universe to be fleeting, who is there in it, endued with body, that would venture to repose confidence on either his body or all the objects of his desire? Like thyself I also know that this universe is not eternal, and that it has been thrown into Time's conflagration that is dreadful though hidden from the view, that is continuously burning, and that is truly endless. Every one is assailed here by Time. Nothing among beings that are subtile or gross enjoys an immunity from Time's sway. All things are being cooked in Time's cauldron. Time has no master. Time is ever heedful. Time is always cooking all things within itself. No one who has once entered the domain of Time which is ceaselessly going on, can escape therefrom. All embodied beings may be heedless of Time, but Time is heedful and is broad awake behind them. No one has ever been seen to have driven off Time from him. Ancient and eternal, and the embodiment of justice, Time is uniform in respect of all living creatures. Time cannot be avoided, and there is no retrogression in its course. Like a usurer adding up his interest, Time adds up its subtile portions represented by kalas, and lavas, and kashthas, and kshanas, and months, and days and nights. Like the current of a river washing away a tree whose roots are reached by it, Time, getting at him who says, "This I will do today but this other act I will do tomorrow" sweeps him away. Time sweeps away one and men exclaim, "I saw him a little while ago. How has he died?"Mbh 12.227.5a · Mahabharata · SANTI PARVA
Mbh 12.227.5a
Mahabharata · translated by Kisari Mohan Ganguli
Themes in this passage
DeathThe DivineTruthWisdomDesireImpermanenceJusticeKarma
Death in other traditions
The same theme, as Christianity, Islam, Taoism and Hellenism address it.
And the children of Israel spake unto Moses, saying, Behold, we die, we perish, we all perish.Numbers 17:12 · Bible · Numbers
Lo! thou wilt die, and lo! they will die;Quran 39:30 · Quran · The Companies
The people do not fear death; to what purpose is it to (try to) frighten them with death? If the people were always in awe of death, and I could always seize those who do wrong, and put them to death, who would dare to do wrong?Tao Te Ching 74.1 · Tao Te Ching
These words, attended with a shower of tears, The youth address’d to unrelenting ears: “Talk not of life, or ransom (he replies): Patroclus dead, whoever meets me, dies: In vain a single Trojan sues for grace; But least, the sons of Priam’s hateful race. Die then, my friend! what boots it to deplore? The great, the good Patroclus is no more! He, far thy better, was foredoom’d to die, And thou, dost thou bewail mortality? Seest thou not me, whom nature’s gifts adorn, Sprung from a hero, from a goddess born? The day shall come (which nothing can avert) When by the spear, the arrow, or the dart, By night, or day, by force, or by design, Impending death and certain fate are mine! Die then,”—He said; and as the word he spoke, The fainting stripling sank before the stroke: His hand forgot its grasp, and left the spear, While all his trembling frame confess’d his fear: Sudden, Achilles his broad sword display’d, And buried in his neck the reeking blade. Prone fell the youth; and panting on the land, The gushing purple dyed the thirsty sand. The victor to the stream the carcase gave, And thus insults him, floating on the wave:Iliad 21.7 · Iliad · 21
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