Shloka 12
अध्याय २९७ — श्रेयः, धृति, दान-नियमाः
Welfare, Steadfastness, and Norms of Giving
जब आयु समाप्त हो जाती है तभी देहधारी जीव पंचत्वको प्राप्त होता है। यह बिना कारणके भी हो जाता है और कभी विभिन्न कारणोंसे उपपादित होता है ।। तथा शरीरं भवति देहाद् येनोपपादितम् | अध्वानं गतवश्चायं प्राप्तश्नायं गृहाद् गृहम्,जो लोग देहको पाकर हठपूर्वक उसका परित्याग कर देते हैं, उनको पूर्ववत् ही यातनामय शरीरकी प्राप्ति होती है। ऐसे लोग (मोक्षके साधनरूप मनुष्यशरीरको पाकर भी आत्महत्याके कारण उस लाभसे वंचित हो) एक घरसे दूसरे घरमें जानेवाले मनुष्यके समान एक शरीरसे दूसरे शरीरको प्राप्त होते हैं
yadā āyuḥ samāptā bhavati tadā dehadhārī jīvaḥ pañcatvaṃ prāpnoti | etad akāraṇam api bhavati, kadācid vividha-kāraṇaiḥ upapāditam | tathā śarīraṃ bhavati dehād yena upapāditam | adhvānaṃ gatavaś cāyaṃ prāptaś cāyaṃ gṛhād gṛham | ye tu dehaṃ prāpya haṭhapūrvakaṃ tasya parityāgaṃ kurvanti, teṣāṃ pūrvavad eva yātanāmaya-śarīra-prāptir bhavati | te manuṣya-śarīraṃ mokṣa-sādhanam api prāpya ātmahatyā-kāraṇāt tasya lābhāt vañcitāḥ, gṛhād gṛhaṃ gacchato manuṣyasyeva dehād dehaṃ prāpya saṃsaranti |
Parāśara said: “When one’s allotted lifespan comes to an end, the embodied being reaches the state of the five elements—death. This may occur even without any evident cause, and at other times it is explained as arising from various causes. And a body is fashioned according to the basis by which it is brought about. Thus this being, driven along the road of transmigration, goes from house to house. Those who, having obtained a body, abandon it by force—through self-destruction—gain again a body of suffering, as before. Though they have attained the human body, a means for liberation, they are deprived of its benefit by the act of self-killing; like a person moving from one house to another, they pass from one body to the next.”
पराशर उवाच