Shloka 7
तत्कारणैहिं संयुक्त कार्यसंग्रहकारकम् । येनैतद् वर्तते चक्रमनादिनिधनं महत्,इन कारणोंसे युक्त होकर जीव कर्मोंका संग्रह करता है। कर्मोंसे वासना और वासनाओंसे पुनः कर्म होते हैं। इस प्रकार यह अनादि, अनन्त महान् संसार-चक्र चलता रहता है
tatkāraṇaiḥ saṁyuktaḥ kārya-saṅgraha-kārakam | yenaitad vartate cakram anādi-nidhanaṁ mahat ||
Bhishma said: Endowed with those causal factors, the embodied being accumulates and stores up actions. From actions arise latent impressions and cravings, and from those cravings actions are born again. Thus the great wheel of worldly existence—without beginning and without end—continues to turn.
भीष्म उवाच
Educational Q&A
Actions generate latent tendencies (vāsanās), and those tendencies propel further action; this mutual reinforcement keeps the beginningless, seemingly endless cycle of saṁsāra in motion. Ethical discipline and insight are implied as the means to weaken this causal chain.
In Śānti Parva’s instruction on dharma and liberation, Bhīṣma explains to the listener the mechanism by which beings become bound: causal conditions lead to accumulation of karma, which in turn produces dispositions that drive repeated action, sustaining the world-cycle.