Beings are unmanifest in the beginning, manifest in the middle, then unmanifest

Sankhya Yoga

Chapter 2, Verse 28

 

avyaktādīni bhūtāni 

vyakta-madhyāni bhārata 

avyakta nidhanānyeva 

tatra kā parivedana

 

Beings are unmanifest in the beginning, manifest in the middle, unmanifest likewise are they in disintegration. What is there to be grieved at, O Bharata?

 

In the beginning, before birth, the soul has no connection with this body. “In the middle”, when the body gets manifested, the soul still doesn’t have any connection to the body. And after death, the soul will maintain no connection to the gross body. The soul manifests in a body to do its karma, to finish the karma which had been created in past lifetimes, yet it remains untouched by anything. Then the soul frees itself upon passing from this body: it doesn’t hang onto the body. The Atma goes through this process. Lord Krishna says that this is like a dream world: the dream world is non-existent before and after the dream. It is only during the dream that the dreamer seems to have a relationship with the body. It is only during the dream that you feel that everything is real. But in reality, it is not! You don’t have any connection to that dream. So why do you lament? A dream is only for a short period of time.

Bhagavad Gita