Shloka 48
निष्कैवल्येन पापेन तिर्यग्योनिमवाप्नुयात् । पुण्यपापेन मानुष्यं पुण्येनेकेन देवता:,अत्यन्त केवल पापकर्मोंके फलस्वरूप जीव पशु-पक्षी आदि तिर्यग्योनिको प्राप्त होता है। पुण्य और पाप दोनोंके सम्मिश्रणसे मनुष्यलोक मिलता है तथा केवल पुण्यसे प्राणी देवयोनिको प्राप्त होता है
niṣkaivalyena pāpena tiryagyoniṃ avāpnuyāt | puṇyapāpena mānuṣyaṃ puṇyenaikena devatāḥ ||
By exclusively sinful action one falls into an animal birth. By a mixture of merit and sin one attains human birth; and by merit alone one reaches the state of the gods.
वसिष्ठ उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse teaches a karmic hierarchy of rebirth: purely sinful conduct results in animal birth, mixed merit and sin yields human birth, and purely meritorious conduct leads to divine birth. It emphasizes ethical responsibility by linking one’s moral choices to future states of existence.
In Śānti Parva’s instructional setting, the sage Vasiṣṭha is explaining principles of karma and rebirth. He summarizes how different moral compositions of action (sin-only, mixed, merit-only) correspond to different destinations (animal, human, divine).