Shloka 20
Dehānta (Cyavana) and Upapatti: Kāśyapa’s Questions and the Siddha’s Account of Death, Pain, and Karmic Re-embodiment
तादृशीमेव लभते वेदनां मानव: पुनः । भिन्नसंधिरथ क्लेदमद्धि: स लभते नर:
tādṛśīm eva labhate vedanāṁ mānavaḥ punaḥ | bhinnasandhir atha kledam addhiḥ sa labhate naraḥ, vipravara |
The Siddha said: “A human being again experiences pain of the very same kind. When the joints of the body are being torn apart, he undergoes that agony; and at birth, soaked in the moisture of the womb, he becomes intensely distressed. Thus, O best of Brahmins, all beings are seen to abandon their bodies, and the entry into the womb and the fall from the womb are accompanied by suffering akin to that felt at death.”
सिद्ध उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse underscores the continuity of suffering across death and rebirth: the agony of dying (as bodily joints loosen and break) is mirrored by the distress of entering and emerging from the womb. The ethical-philosophical thrust is toward vairagya (detachment) and sober reflection on saṁsāra, encouraging the listener to seek liberation rather than cling to bodily existence.
A Siddha addresses a Brahmin, describing what beings undergo at death and at birth. He explains that the embodied self experiences intense pain when leaving the body and similarly suffers during gestation and delivery, being drenched in womb-fluid and distressed—presented as an observation meant to instruct and awaken discernment.