नमः वज्रयोगिन्यै॥
Salutations to the Vajrayoginī!
Making and becoming amidst being and cessation,
Out of sheer folly do people bind themselves hither.
We—the bards of the unthinkable—do not know:
How things such as birth and death truly show.
Just as mysterious as birth, mysterious so is death;
For at the dust’s settling, they are but the same.
Whoever here was born and is stalked by death,
He keeps seeking the elixir that cheats mortality.
They who move across infancy, youth and old age,
Why do they not become free from age and death?
Is birth due to karma; or is karma due to birth?
Saraha says—that is the unthinkable dhamma.
— Mahāsiddha Sarahapāda, c. 8–10th c. CE, eastern India
(Caveat: See this note for this kind of poetic translation.)