Desireless, wise, immortal, self-existent, full of bliss, lacking in nothing, is the one who knows the wise, unaging, youthful ātman. He fears not death! §
Atharva Veda 10.8.44. VE, 538§
He, however, who has not understanding, who is unmindful and ever impure, reaches not the goal, but goes on to reincarnation. He, however, who has understanding, who is mindful and ever pure, reaches the goal from which he is born no more. §
Kṛishṇa Yajur Veda, Kathā Upanishad 3.7-8. UPH, 352§
Go, my breath, to the immortal Breath. Then may this body end in ashes! Remember, O my mind, the deeds of the past, remember the deeds, remember the deeds! §
Śukla Yajur Veda, Īśa Upanishad 17. VE, 831§
Even as a heavy laden cart moves on groaning, even so the cart of the human body, wherein lives the spirit, moves on groaning when a man is giving up the breath of life. And as when a king is going to depart, the nobles and officers, the charioteers and the heads of the village assemble around him, even so all the powers of life gather about the soul when a man is giving up the breath of life. When departing, by the head, or by the eye or other parts of the body, life arises and follows the soul, and the powers of life follow life. The soul becomes conscious and enters into Consciousness. His wisdom and works take him by the hand, and the knowledge known of old. Then even as a worker in gold, taking an old ornament, molds it into a form newer and fairer, even so the soul, leaving the body and unwisdom behind, goes into a form newer and fairer, a form like that of the ancestors in heaven, or of the celestial beings, or of the Gods of light, or of the Lord of Creation, or of Brahmā, the Creator supreme, or a form of other beings. §
Śukla Yajur Veda, Bṛihadāraṇyaka Upanishad 4.3.35; 37 & 4.4.2; 3. UPM, 138-139§
O Māghavan, verily, this body is mortal. It has been appropriated by death. But it is the standing ground of that deathless, bodiless Self (ātman). Verily, he who is incorporate has been appropriated by pleasure and pain. Verily, there is no freedom from pleasure and pain for one while he is incorporate. Verily, while one is bodiless, pleasure and pain do not touch him. §
Sāma Veda, Çhandogya Upanishad 8.12.1. UPH, 272§
I pray Thee for undying love. I pray Thee for the birthless state; but were I to be born again, for the grace of never forgetting Thee. Still more do I pray to be at Thy feet singing joyfully while Thou dancest.§
Tirumurai 11, Karaikkal Ammaiyar. PR, 132§
Thus acting from the principle of māyā itself down to the lowest level, karma, even when it manifests as good, is an obstacle still, because it is not toward liberation that it leads. Karma does not dissolve without its various fruits being tasted and consumed.§
Mṛigendra Āgama, Jñāna Pāda 8.A.5-6. MA, 193-4§
A twice-born, gone to the end of the Veda, knowing that life is impermanent, may abandon the body there by fasting to death according to prescription. After worshiping the Gods and honoring the munis, the siddhā may go to heaven, the eternal realm of Brahmā. §
Mahābhārata, Anu. Parva 25.63-64. HE, 100§
Even as the snake sloughs off its skin, even as the bird leaves its shell, even as in its waking state the jīva forgets happenings of the dream state—thus does jīva from one body to another migrate until, with grace of Hara, it reaches where it is destined to be, and there experiences the two karmas, good and evil. §
Tirumantiram 2132. TM§
They germinate the seed. They plant the seedlings. But, poor in spirit, they do not think of their own fleeting life. Knowing nothing of karmic sorrows, verily they are consumed in the funeral pyre. §
Tirumantiram 2084. TM§
All suffering recoils on the wrongdoer himself. Therefore, those desiring not to suffer refrain from causing others pain. If a man visits sorrow on another in the morning, sorrow will visit him unbidden in the afternoon. §
Tirukural 320, 319. WW§
The Life of my life, whose nature ’tis to hold the fire in His hand, essence of Truth of purest gold, who neither comes nor goes, the Mighty One who doth all souls pervade—in this great world, for those who thus meditate on Him, all future births will end.§
Natchintanai, “Cure for Birth.” NT, 191§