Bhagavad Gita, Chapter 2, Verse 28

अव्यक्तादीनि भूतानि व्यक्तमध्यानि भारत । अव्यक्तनिधनान्येव तत्र का परिदेवना

avyaktādīni bhūtāni vyaktamadhyāni bhārata | avyaktanidhanānyeva tatra kā paridevanā

Translation

Beings have their beginning unseen, their middle seen, and their end unseen again. Why any lamentation regarding them?

— Alladi Mahadeva Sastri

Word meanings

avyaktādīni

unmanifest, beginning, whose, they

bhūtāni

beings

vyaktamadhyāni

manifest, middle, whose, they

bhārata

O Bhārata

avyaktanidhanāni

unmanifest, destruction, whose, they

eva

also

atra

there

kā

what

paridevanā

lamentation

Śaṅkarācārya's commentary

Beings — sons, friends, and the rest — are unmanifest before birth, manifest in the middle period between birth and death, and unmanifest again after death. Of the three states, only the middle is seen by us; the beginning and the end are not perceived. Things whose beginning and end are alike unseen do not really exist apart from the brief middle apparition; over such things lamentation has no proper ground.