Shloka 33
Śrī–Indra–Bali Saṃvāda: The Departure and Fourfold Placement of Lakṣmī
अविद्यां क्षेत्रमाहुरहि कर्म बीज॑ तथा कृतम् । तृष्णा संजननं स्नेह एष तेषां पुनर्भव:
avidyāṁ kṣetram āhur hi karma bījaṁ tathā kṛtam | tṛṣṇā sañjananaṁ sneha eṣa teṣāṁ punarbhavaḥ ||
ভীষ্ম বললেন— “তাঁরা অবিদ্যাকে ক্ষেত্র বলেন; পূর্বজন্মে কৃত কর্ম বীজ; আর তৃষ্ণাই সেই স্নেহ—জল—যা অঙ্কুরকে জন্ম দেয়। তাঁদের মতে এটাই পুনর্জন্মের প্রক্রিয়া।”
भीष्म उवाच
Educational Q&A
Rebirth is explained through an agricultural metaphor: ignorance provides the ‘field’ for bondage, past actions supply the ‘seed’ of future experience, and craving/attachment acts like ‘moisture’ that makes the seed sprout again as renewed existence. Reducing ignorance and craving is implied as the ethical-spiritual remedy.
In Shanti Parva, Bhishma instructs Yudhishthira on dharma and liberation-oriented wisdom. Here he summarizes a doctrinal account of how saṁsāra continues—linking avidyā, karma, and tṛṣṇā as the causal chain behind repeated birth.