Bhagavad Gita · Chapter 11: The Vision of the Cosmic Form

Bhagavad Gita 11.28

yathā nadīnāṃ bahavo'mbuvegāḥ samudramevābhimukhā dravanti | tathā tavāmī naralokavīrā viśanti vaktrāṇyabhivijvalanti ||

As the many rushing torrents of the rivers race toward the ocean, so these heroes of the human world are entering your blazing mouths.

Modern context

Rivers rush toward the ocean; so these warriors rush toward their end. The image is not only terrible. Rivers do not resist the sea; they flow into it because that is their nature, and the sea receives them. Death here is pictured as a return to a vastness from which everything came. The grief is real, and so is the sense of homecoming.