janma

जातस्य हि ध्रुवो मृत्युर्ध्रुवं जन्म मृतस्य च

janma — birth

For the born, death is certain; for the dead, birth is certain. So do not grieve over what cannot be avoided.

यामिमां पुष्पितां वाचं प्रवदन्त्यविपश्चितः

janma-karma-phala — high birth and fruitive results

Those of small understanding speak flowery words, delighting in the letter of the scriptures, and say there is nothing more —

कामात्मानः स्वर्गपरा जन्मकर्मफलप्रदाम्

janma-karma-phala-pradām — resulting in fruitive action, good birth, etc.

driven by desire, aiming at higher worlds, promising good birth as the fruit of action, full of elaborate rites for enjoyment and power.

कर्मजं बुद्धियुक्ता हि फलं त्यक्त्वा मनीषिणः

janma-bandha-vinirmuktāḥ — freedom from the bondage of life and death

The wise, joined to understanding, let go of the fruit born of action, and freed from the bondage of birth they reach a state beyond harm.

अपरं भवतो जन्म परं जन्म विवस्वतः

janma — birth

Your birth was later; Vivasvan's was earlier. How am I to understand that you taught it in the beginning?

जन्म कर्म च मे दिव्यमेवं यो वेत्ति तत्त्वतः

janma — birth

One who truly knows my birth and my work as they are, on leaving the body is not born again, but comes to me.

अथवा योगिनामेव कुले भवति धीमताम्

janma — birth

or else is born into a family of those who practise and are wise. That birth is harder still to come by in this world.

प्रयत्नाद्यतमानस्तु योगी संशुद्धकिल्बिषः

janma — births

Striving with effort, purified of fault, perfected across many births, the practitioner then reaches the highest goal.

मामुपेत्य पुनर्जन्म दुःखालयमशाश्वतम्

janma — birth

Having come to me, the great-souled ones do not return to birth, which is a dwelling of pain and does not last.

इन्द्रियार्थेषु वैराग्यमनहङ्कार एव च

janma — of birth

dispassion toward the objects of sense, absence of the sense of self, and seeing clearly the trouble in birth, death, old age and sickness;

गुणानेतानतीत्य त्रीन्देही देहसमुद्भवान्

janma — birth

Having gone beyond these three strands, out of which the body arises, the embodied one is freed from birth, death, old age and pain, and reaches the deathless.