Shloka 14
Adhyāya 290: Sāṃkhya-vidhi, Deha-doṣa, Guṇa-vicāra, and Mokṣa-gati
Bhīṣma–Yudhiṣṭhira Dialogue
तात! इस विषयमें नास्तिक कहते हैं “मैं प्रारब्धको प्रत्यक्ष नहीं देख पाता तथा प्रारब्धके अस्तित्वका सूचक अनुमानप्रमाण भी नहीं है। किंतु देवता, गन्धर्व और दानव आदि योनियाँ तो स्वभावसे ही प्राप्त होती हैं” ।। प्रेत्य जातिकृतं कर्म न स्मरन्ति सदा जना: | ते वै तस्य फलप्राप्ती कर्म चापि चतुर्विधम्
pretya jātikṛtaṃ karma na smaranti sadā janāḥ | te vai tasya phalaprāptī karma cāpi caturvidham ||
Parāśara said: “After death and a new birth, people do not consistently remember the actions done in a former life. Yet the results of those deeds are certainly encountered; and action, in this context, is spoken of as fourfold.”
पराशर उवाच
Educational Q&A
Even if people do not remember deeds from previous lives, the fruits of those deeds are still experienced. Forgetfulness is not evidence against karma; moral causality continues across death and rebirth, and action is analyzed here as fourfold.
Parāśara is responding to a skeptical objection about prārabdha (destiny) being unseen and allegedly uninferable. He counters by noting that beings may not recall past-life actions, but they nonetheless undergo their results, implying an underlying continuity of karma across births.