Shloka 12
Dvaipāyana–Kīṭa Saṃvāda: Karmic Memory, Fear of Death, and Embodied Pleasure
पितृमातृसमायोगे पुत्रत्वं जायते यथा । हिंसां कृत्वावश: पापो भूयिष्ठं जायते तथा
pitṛmātṛsamāyoge putratvaṃ jāyate yathā | hiṃsāṃ kṛtvāvaśaḥ pāpo bhūyiṣṭhaṃ jāyate tathā ||
Bhīṣma sprach: „Wie die Sohnschaft aus der Vereinigung von Vater und Mutter entsteht, so wird auch der sündige Mann, der Gewalt verübt hat, hilflos dazu getrieben, immer wieder geboren zu werden—zumeist in sündigen Schoßen.“
भीष्म उवाच
Educational Q&A
Violence (hiṃsā) generates powerful negative karma: once a person commits harm, he becomes compelled by its consequences to undergo repeated births, frequently in degraded or sinful conditions. The verse frames this as a causal certainty, like biological birth from parents.
In Anuśāsana Parva, Bhīṣma is instructing Yudhiṣṭhira on dharma and conduct. Here he uses an analogy—parental union producing a child—to stress the inevitability of karmic results from हिंसा, warning against harmful actions.