Shloka 253

Aśmagīta: Janaka’s Inquiry on Loss, Kāla, and the Limits of Control (अश्मगीता)

Devanagari script

निर्माणे यस्य यद्‌ दिष्टं तेन गच्छति सेतुना । रोग, अग्नि, जल, शस्त्र, भूख, प्यास, विपत्ति, विष, ज्वर और ऊँचे स्थानसे गिरना--ये सब जीवकी मृत्युके निमित्त हैं। जन्मके समय जिसके लिये प्रारब्धवश जो निमित्त नियत कर दिया गया है, वही उसका सेतु है, अतः उसीके द्वारा वह जाता है अर्थात्‌ परलोकमें गमन करता है

Transliteration

nirmāṇe yasya yad diṣṭaṃ tena gacchati setunā | rogo 'gnir jalaṃ śastraṃ bubhukṣā pipāsā vipattir viṣaṃ jvaraś ca uccasthānād patanaṃ ca—etāni sarvāṇi jīvasya mṛtyu-nimittāni | janma-kāle yasya yac chubha-aśubhaṃ prārabdha-vaśān nimittaṃ niyataṃ kṛtaṃ tad eva tasya setuḥ; tenaiva sa gacchati, arthāt paralokaṃ yāti |

Translation

Janaka said: For each being, whatever end is ordained at the time of its coming into existence—by that very “bridge” it departs. Disease, fire, water, weapons, hunger, thirst, calamity, poison, fever, and falling from a height are all merely occasions that can become the cause of death. Yet the particular occasion fixed by one’s prārabdha at birth is the bridge appointed for that person; by that alone one passes on—meaning, one goes to the next world.

Word by Word

• {'nirmāṇa': 'coming into being

• (here) the time of embodiment/birth', 'diṣṭa': 'ordained, appointed, destined', 'setu': 'bridge

• a fixed means of crossing (metaphor for the destined occasion of death)', 'gacchati': 'goes, departs', 'roga': 'disease', 'agni': 'fire', 'jala': 'water', 'śastra': 'weapon', 'bubhukṣā': 'hunger', 'pipāsā': 'thirst', 'vipatti': 'misfortune, calamity', 'viṣa': 'poison', 'jvara': 'fever', 'uccasthānāt patanam': 'falling from a high place', 'jīva': 'living being, embodied self', 'mṛtyu-nimitta': 'occasion/cause leading to death', 'janma-kāla': 'time of birth', 'prārabdha': 'already-begun karma bearing fruit in the present life', 'niyata': 'fixed, determined', 'paraloka': 'the other world

Speaker

जनक उवाच

Characters & Entities

• Janaka