Shloka 11
Adhyāya 290: Sāṃkhya-vidhi, Deha-doṣa, Guṇa-vicāra, and Mokṣa-gati
Bhīṣma–Yudhiṣṭhira Dialogue
सौवर्ण राजतं चापि यथा भाण्डं निषिच्यते । तथा निषिच्यते जनन््तुः पूर्वकर्मवशानुग:,जैसे ताँबे आदिके बर्तनोंपर जब सोने और चाँदीकी कलई चढ़ा दी जाती है तब वे वैसे ही दिखायी देने लगते हैं। उसी प्रकार पूर्व कर्मोके वशीभूत प्राणी पूर्वकृत कर्मसे लिप्त रहता है (पुण्यकर्मसे लिप्त होनेके कारण वह सुखी होता है और पापसे लिप्त होनेके कारण उसे दुःख उठाना पड़ता है)
sauvarṇaṃ rājataṃ cāpi yathā bhāṇḍaṃ niṣicyate | tathā niṣicyate jantuḥ pūrvakarmavaśānugaḥ ||
Parāśara said: “Just as a vessel is overlaid with a coating of gold or silver and thereby appears to be of that very substance, so too a living being is ‘coated’ by prior action. Bound to the force of former deeds, one remains marked by what one has done before—experiencing happiness when one is invested with merit, and suffering when one is invested with sin.”
पराशर उवाच
Educational Q&A
Past actions adhere to and shape the embodied being, just as a metallic coating changes a vessel’s appearance; merit yields happiness and demerit yields suffering, showing the ethical inevitability of karmic results.
In Śānti Parva, Parāśara is instructing through an analogy: he compares the way gold or silver plating is applied to a vessel with the way prior karma ‘covers’ a creature, explaining why beings experience pleasure or pain.