Shloka 39
अहिंसा-प्रधान धर्मविचारः
Ahiṃsā as the Superior Dharma: Practical and Scriptural Reasoning
सर्वे देवा: प्राणिनां प्राणनान्ते गत्वा वृत्ता: संनिवृत्तास्तथैव । एवं सर्वे मानवा: प्राणनान्ते गत्वा वृत्ता देववद् राजसिंह
Pitāmaha uvāca: sarve devāḥ prāṇināṃ prāṇanānte gatvā vṛttāḥ saṃnivṛttās tathaiva | evaṃ sarve mānavāḥ prāṇanānte gatvā vṛttā devavad, rājasimha rājasimha |
Bhīṣma sprach: „Am Ende des Lebens gehen alle Wesen fort; und wie die Götter sich zurückziehen und am Abschluss einer Lebensspanne untätig werden, so gehen auch die Menschen im Tod gemäß ihren Taten weiter. Manche gelangen zu Zuständen wie die der Götter, andere stürzen auf höllische Pfade. Wenn die Kraft ihrer Taten erschöpft ist, kehren sie in diese Welt zurück und werden erneut unter menschlichen und anderen Schoßen geboren — wie die Sinne am Ende des Wachens in den Schlaf versinken und wieder erscheinen, wenn das Wachen zurückkehrt.“
पितामह उवाच
Educational Q&A
Death is not an absolute end: beings depart to other realms in accordance with karma—some to divine-like states, some to painful/hellish states—and when the results of those deeds are exhausted, they return to embodied existence. The verse uses the analogy of waking and sleep: just as senses withdraw in sleep and re-emerge on waking, so embodied life withdraws at death and reappears through rebirth.
In the Śānti Parva’s instruction section, Bhīṣma (the Grandsire) addresses the king (rājasimha, commonly understood as Yudhiṣṭhira) and explains the moral-causal order governing post-mortem destinies. He frames the teaching as guidance for righteous living and governance by emphasizing that actions inevitably mature into results across lives.