Shloka 44
सो<स्मादथ भ्रश्यति कालयोगात् कृष्णे तले तिष्ठति सर्वकृष्टे । यथा त्वयं सिद्धाति जीवलोक- स्तत् तेडभिधास्याम्यसुरप्रवीर,“असुरोंके प्रमुख वीर! वह जीव कालक्रमसे अशुभ कर्म करके कभी-कभी मर्त्यलोकसे भी नीचे गिर जाता है और सबसे निकृष्ट, तलप्रदेशकी भाँति निम्नतम, कृष्णवर्ण (स्थावर योनि) में जन्म ग्रहण करके स्थित होता है। इस प्रकार उत्थान-पतनके चक्रमें पड़े हुए इस जीवसमूहको जिस प्रकार सिद्धि (मुक्ति) प्राप्त होती है, वह मैं तुम्हें बता रहा हूँ
so 'smād atha bhraśyati kālayogāt kṛṣṇe tale tiṣṭhati sarvakṛṣṭe | yathā tvayaṃ siddhāti jīvalokas tat te 'bhidhāsyāmy asurapravīra ||
Bhishma said: “Thereafter, through the workings of time, a being falls away—descending to the darkest and lowest level, as though to an underworld-like stratum, taking birth among the most degraded forms of existence. And now, O foremost hero among the Asuras, I shall explain to you how this world of living beings, caught in the cycle of rise and fall, attains true accomplishment—liberation.”
भीष्म उवाच
Educational Q&A
Time and karma can cause an embodied being to fall into increasingly degraded states of existence; Bhishma then turns to the remedy—explaining the means by which beings caught in samsara can attain siddhi, i.e., liberation.
Bhishma addresses an Asura leader and describes the soul’s downward movement under the force of time and wrongdoing, setting up his forthcoming instruction on how liberation is achieved despite the cycle of ascent and decline.