Swami Satyananda taught that everything in the world including us is impermanent. He emphasized that it was imperative to recognize this so that one could move past attachments. Then only one could proceed on the path and develop vairagya (dispassion).

These couplets extracted from Tirukkural, Book 1, Being Good illustrate the meaning of impermanence brilliantly.

Impermanence

That life’s tree will always be in leaf
Is a foolish and fond belief. – 331

They fill the hall in eagerness the great dance to see
No sooner is it done, they exit with rapidity
Wealth’s the same—it swells as the hall’s seating sells
And shrivels as the concert crowd melts. – 332

As the restive bird singing, abandons its nest
So, the soul flees the body, tired of being its guest. – 338

‘Deaths but a nap’ says old wisdom
But birth? A break in the soul’s freedom. – 339

The soul is a wanderer; a wanderer is she
She sits in the body, just waiting to flee. – 340

Aim Hrim Klim

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