Srimad Bhagavatam — Saptama Skandha, Shloka 37
Hiraṇyakaśipu’s Wrath, the Assault on Vedic Culture, and the Boy-Yamarāja’s Teaching on the Soul
श्रीयम उवाच अहो अमीषां वयसाधिकानां विपश्यतां लोकविधिं विमोह: । यत्रागतस्तत्र गतं मनुष्यं स्वयं सधर्मा अपि शोचन्त्यपार्थम् ॥ ३७ ॥
śrī-yama uvāca aho amīṣāṁ vayasādhikānāṁ vipaśyatāṁ loka-vidhiṁ vimohaḥ yatrāgatas tatra gataṁ manuṣyaṁ svayaṁ sadharmā api śocanty apārtham
Śrī Yamarāja said: Alas, how amazing it is! These persons, who are older than me, have full experience that hundreds and thousands of living entities have taken birth and died. Thus they should understand that they also are apt to die, yet still they are bewildered. The conditioned soul comes from an unknown place and returns after death to that same unknown place. There is no exception to this rule, which is conducted by material nature. Knowing this, why do they uselessly lament?
The Lord says in Bhagavad-gītā (2.28) :
FAQs
This verse says lamentation is largely useless because death is the ordained law of the world—one simply returns to the destination inevitable for all.
Yamarāja observes how people—even elders who have witnessed life’s patterns—still become deluded and grieve intensely when someone dies, forgetting dharma and inevitability.
Remember life’s impermanence, grieve with sobriety, and channel loss into dharmic living—service, prayer, and spiritual practice rather than despair.