Shloka 3
Karma-Phala Rahasya and the Ethics of Dāna (कर्मफल-रहस्यं दानधर्मश्च)
येन येन शरीरेण यद् यत् कर्म करोति यः । तेन तेन शरीरेण तत् तत् फलमुपाश्चुते,मनुष्य जिस-जिस (स्थूल या सूक्ष्म) शरीरसे जो-जो कर्म करता है उसी-उसी शरीरसे उस-उस कर्मका फल भोगता है
yena yena śarīreṇa yad yat karma karoti yaḥ | tena tena śarīreṇa tat tat phalam upāśnute ||
Bhīṣma said: Whatever action a person performs through whatever body—gross or subtle—through that very body he experiences the corresponding result. Thus, the fruits of deeds are not random: they return to the doer in the same embodied mode by which the deed was done, affirming moral causality and personal responsibility.
भीष्म उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse teaches karma-phala: actions yield corresponding results, and the experiencer of those results is the same embodied agent who performed the actions—whether through a gross physical body or a subtler mode of embodiment.
In Anuśāsana Parva, Bhīṣma instructs on dharma and ethical law. Here he states a general principle of moral causation: deeds done through a particular embodied condition bring their fruits to be experienced through that same condition.