Shloka 22
Karma-Phala Rahasya and the Ethics of Dāna (कर्मफल-रहस्यं दानधर्मश्च)
यथा धेनुसहस्रेषु वत्सो विन्दति मातरम् | एवं पूर्वकृतं कर्म कर्तारमनुगच्छति,जैसे बछड़ा हजारों गौओंके बीचमें अपनी माताको ढूँढ़ लेता है, उसी प्रकार पहलेका किया हुआ कर्म भी कर्ताको पहचानकर उसका अनुसरण करता है
yathā dhenusahasreṣu vatso vindati mātaram | evaṃ pūrvakṛtaṃ karma kartāram anugacchati ||
Bhishma sprach: „Wie ein Kalb selbst unter tausend Kühen seine eigene Mutter findet, so erkennt auch eine einst vollbrachte Tat ihren Täter und folgt ihm.“
भीष्म उवाच
Educational Q&A
Past actions are inescapably connected to the agent: karma does not vanish or misidentify its recipient, but returns to the very doer with appropriate results, just as a calf unfailingly finds its own mother.
In Bhishma’s instruction on dharma and conduct, he uses a vivid pastoral simile—calf and mother-cow—to explain the certainty and precision with which karmic consequences track the person who performed the deed.