[INDOLOGY] Query

[Patrick Olivelle]

Dear All:

An anthropologist friend of mine recalls a Sanskrit verse or proverb told him by a Kashmiri Brahmin regarding the significance of rebirth. I could not place it, and wonder whether there is anything in the literature that strikes a bell.

"A village Brahmin was holding forth to me on the virtues of rebirth, saying it takes a long, long time in this Kali Yuga to complete the good works that one can and should do. For good effect, he rounded off in Sanskrit, which I did not take down carefully, explaining in Kashmiri: "We shall have to take birth time and again, and again". Now, what must he have said?"

Thanks.


Patrick