From Birth To Death And Death To Birth Poem by Anita Sehgal

For the pleasure of Thine senses

Ye hast run from life to life..

Body to body..

What about the soul?

Does it even exist?

Caged and imprisoned within the five elements..

Dominated by the three gunas…

It pleads for mercy

seeks release from the cycle of life and death.
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Five elements refers to air, water, earth, fire and ether - which forms the life force and then disintegrates thus completing the life cycle.

The three gunas means the basic qualities of nature viz. sattva (purity leading to divine happiness and knowledge) , rajas (passion leading to intense desire for sense objects) and tamas (darkness leading to delusion) . They are present in different proportions in all beings determining the intrinsic nature. The proportion defines man's attachments to the sense objects. To attain immortality and freedom from the cycle of birth and death, one has to move beyond the three gunas.