Shloka 38
शतं सहस्त्राणि ततक्ष्रित्वा प्राप्रोति वर्ण हरितं तु पश्चात् स चैव तस्मिन् निवसत्यनीशो युगक्षये तपसा संवृतात्मा,“तदनन्तर वह जीव लाखों बार (या लाखों वर्षोतक) नरकमें विचरण करके फिर धूम्रवर्ण पाता है (पशु-पक्षी आदिकी योनिमें जन्म लेता है)। उस योनिमें भी वह विवश होकर बड़े दुःखसे निवास करता है। फिर युगक्षय होनेपर वह तप (पुरातन पुण्यकर्म या विवेक) के प्रभावसे सुरक्षित होकर उस संकटसे उद्धार पा जाता है
śataṃ sahasrāṇi tatakṣṛtvā prāpnoti varṇaṃ haritaṃ tu paścāt | sa caiva tasmin nivasaty anīśo yugakṣaye tapasā saṃvṛtātmā ||
Bhīṣma said: After being hewn down—undergoing suffering—for hundreds of thousands (of times/years), the embodied being later attains a greenish hue, signifying entry into lower births such as animals and birds. In that state too, powerless and constrained, he dwells in great misery. But when the aeon comes to its end, his inner self—protected and steadied by tapas (the force of austerity, or the ripening of ancient merit and discernment)—is delivered from that peril.
भीष्म उवाच
Educational Q&A
Actions have long-lasting consequences: after prolonged suffering in punitive states, a being may fall into constrained lower births; yet the accumulated force of tapas—understood as austerity and/or ripened past merit and discernment—can eventually protect the self and enable release from danger.
Bhishma describes a post-mortem trajectory: extended torment (interpreted by the tradition as hellish wandering), followed by rebirth in lower, helpless conditions (symbolized by a ‘green’ state), and finally a rescue at the end of an aeon through the protective power of tapas.