Shloka 44
दैव–पुरुषकार-प्रश्नः
Daiva–Puruṣakāra Inquiry: Fate and Human Effort
यथा तैलक्षयाद् दीप: प्रह्यासमुपगच्छति । तथा कर्मक्षयाद् दैवं प्रहासमुपगच्छति,जैसे तेल समाप्त हो जानेसे दीपक बुझ जाता है, उसी प्रकार कर्मके क्षीण हो जानेपर दैव भी नष्ट हो जाता है
yathā tailakṣayād dīpaḥ prahāsam upagacchati | tathā karmakṣayād daivaṃ prahāsam upagacchati ||
Bhishma said: “Just as a lamp, when its oil is exhausted, goes out, so too when one’s accumulated karma is spent, even what people call ‘fate’ loses its force and comes to an end.”
भीष्म उवाच
Educational Q&A
So-called ‘fate’ (daiva) is not an independent, permanent power; it operates as long as the stored momentum of past actions (karma) remains. When that karmic stock is exhausted, the effects attributed to destiny also cease—like a lamp that cannot burn without oil.
In Bhishma’s instruction within the Anushasana Parva, he uses a simple household image—the lamp and its oil—to clarify a moral-philosophical point: outcomes arise from causes (karma), and ‘daiva’ is best understood as the ripening of those causes rather than an arbitrary force.