Atheethaya Sihinayak Pamanai Lyrics (අතීතය සිහිනයක් පමණයි) by Karunarathna Diwulgane

The past is only a dream
it carries no real scent
if I had not tied myself with love back then
there would be no parting now

even if the mansions I built crack and fall
there is no tear in my eye
even if I am never granted the chance to smile
there is no stain in my heart

the past is only a dream

not bound to nature’s law,
there is nothing in this world
in this world, apart from loss,
no victory is ever won

the past is only a dream

This is a calm, reflective song about letting go of the past. He looks back on everything that has happened and calls it what it is, only a dream. A dream can feel real while you are inside it, but the moment you wake there is nothing left to hold, no real scent, no weight. He even says that if he had never tied himself to love in the first place, there would be no pain of separation now. There is no bitterness in this. He is just seeing it clearly.

The second verse is where that calm comes through. Even if the grand mansions he built crack and fall, he says, not a single tear comes to his eye. The mansions are not only buildings. They stand for everything we work so hard to build in a life, the money, the plans, the sense of being someone. And even if he is never given a reason to smile again, there is no stain on his heart. He has reached a place where loss can no longer touch his peace.

By the last verse the song opens into something bigger. Nothing in this world, he says, is free from the law of nature. Everything that is born has to change and pass away. This is the heart of the Buddhist idea of impermanence, and you can feel it resting under every line. He ends on a hard, honest truth: in this world there is no lasting victory, only loss. It sounds heavy, but in his voice it feels almost like relief, because once you truly accept that nothing stays, it stops hurting when it goes. The past is only a dream, and he has set it down at last.