Canto 2: Ayodhyā-kāṇḍa ()Chapter 105: Rāma Consoles Bharata With Spiritual InstructionsText 2.105.20
Canto 2 -
Ayodhyā-kāṇḍa
Chapter 105: Rāma Consoles Bharata With Spiritual Instructions
Text 2.105.20
अहोरात्राणि गच्छन्ति सर्वेषां प्राणिनामिह।
आयूंषि क्षपयन्त्याशु ग्रीष्मे जलमिवांशवः॥
aho-rātrāṇi gacchanti sarveṣāṁ prāṇinām iha
āyūṁṣi kṣapayanty āśu grīṣme jalam ivāṁśavaḥ
ahaḥ-rātrāṇi = days and night; gacchanti = go by; sarveṣām = of all; prāṇinām = creatures; iha = in this world; āyūṁṣi = the lifespans; kṣapayanti = while taking away; āśu = quickly [taking away]; grīṣme = in summer; jalam = the water; iva = like; aṁśavaḥ = the sunrays.
In this world, days and nights go by while taking away the lifespans of all creatures like the sunrays quickly [taking away] the water in summer.
NOTE. The Supreme Personality of Godhead has also clarified the temporal nature of everything in material existence thus in Bhagavad-gītā (8.16):
ā-brahma-bhuvanāl lokāḥ punar āvartino ’rjuna
mām upetya tu kaunteya punar janma na vidyate
“From the highest planet in the material world down to the lowest, all are places of misery wherein repeated birth and death take place. But one who attains to My abode, O son of Kuntī, never takes birth again.”