Shloka 12
कालनिर्णयः, युगधर्मवर्णनम्, सृष्टिक्रमश्च
Time-Reckoning, Yuga-Dharma, and the Sequence of Creation
जिसे सदबुद्धि प्राप्त होती है, वह पुरुष उस बुद्धिके द्वारा सारे पापोंको नष्ट कर देता है। पापहीन होनेपर उसे सत्त्वगुणकी प्राप्ति होती है और सत्त्वगुणमें स्थित होकर वह सात््विक प्रसन्नता प्राप्त कर लेता है ।। ततस्तु ये निवर्तन्ते जायन्ते वा पुन: पुनः । कृपणा: परितप्यन्ते तैरथैरभिचोदिता:,जो मन्दबुद्धि मानव सत्त्वगुणसे भ्रष्ट हो जाते हैं, वे बारंबार इस संसारमें जन्म लेते हैं तथा रजोगुणजनित काम, क्रोध आदि दोषोंसे प्रेरित होकर सदा संतप्त होते रहते हैं
śakra uvāca: yasya sadbuddhiḥ prāpyate sa puruṣas tayā buddhyā sarvāṇi pāpāni nāśayati | pāpahīnaḥ san sattvaguṇam avāpnoti, sattvaguṇe sthitaś ca sāttvikīṁ prasannatāṁ labhate || tataḥ tu ye nivartante jāyante vā punaḥ punaḥ | kṛpaṇāḥ paritapyante tair athair abhichoditāḥ || ye mandabuddhayaḥ mānavāḥ sattvaguṇāt bhraśyanti te punar punar asmin saṁsāre jāyante, rajo-guṇa-janitaiḥ kāma-krodhādibhiḥ doṣaiḥ preritāḥ sadā santapyante |
Śakra said: “When a person attains right understanding, he destroys all sins by that very intelligence. Once free from sin, he gains the quality of sattva; established in sattva, he comes to a serene, sāttvic joy. But those who fall away from that higher state are born again and again. Wretched and small-souled, driven onward by those forces of passion and the like, they are continually scorched by suffering. Thus, people of dull understanding who slip from sattva return repeatedly to worldly birth, and, impelled by defects born of rajas—desire, anger, and the rest—remain perpetually afflicted.”
श॒क्र उवाच
Educational Q&A
Right understanding (sadbuddhi) purifies a person by destroying moral demerit; purity leads to the rise of sattva and to serene joy. Losing sattva through dullness and passion results in repeated rebirth and ongoing suffering driven by rajas-born faults like desire and anger.
In Śānti Parva’s instruction on conduct and inner qualities, Śakra (Indra) explains a moral-psychological chain: discernment leads upward to purity and sattvic peace, while falling into rajas through lack of discernment leads to cyclical rebirth and torment.