Shloka
अहं नैव बालो युवा नैव वृद्धो
न वर्णी न च ब्रह्मचारी गृहस्थः ।
वनस्थोऽपि नाहं न संन्यस्तधर्मा
जगज्जन्मनाशैकहेतुः शिवोऽहम् ॥२॥
ahaṃ naiva bālo yuvā naiva vṛddho
na varṇī na ca brahmacārī gṛhasthaḥ ;
vanastho’pi nāhaṃ na saṃnyastadharmā
jagajjanmanāśaikahetuḥ śivo’ham .2.
English Translation
I am not at all a boy nor a youth nor am I an old man. I belong to no caste. I am not a student nor a householder. Neither am I an ascetic (forest-dweller) nor a Sannyasi (who has given up all duties). (On the other hand), I am even the auspicious (Brahman) the sole cause of the origination and the dissolution of the universe.
Accompanying notes to English Translation of Nirvana Manjari
In the same birth also there are the several stages like childhood, youth, middle age and old age and there are also the various stages as a student, householder, ascetic or Sannyasi or as a son, husband, father and grandfather and so on, even where the same embodiment seems to subsist. All these modifications and stages also appertain only to the body and have no relation to soul within, much less to the Inmost Self which is identical with the Absolute Being responsible for the birth, maintenance and passing away of the entire universe of names and forms without being affected in the least measure by any of these cosmic events.