Shloka 17
तथैवोत्क्रामिण: स्थान देहिनो वै विपद्यत: । कालेन यद्धि प्राप्रोति स्थानं तत् प्रतब्रवीहि मे,तथा मरनेवाले जीवके प्राणोंका जब उत्क्रमण होता है, उस समय उसे समयानुसार किस स्थानकी प्राप्ति होती है? इसपर भी प्रकाश डालिये
tathaivotkrāmiṇaḥ sthānaṃ dehino vai vipadyataḥ | kālena yaddhi prāpnoti sthānaṃ tat prabravīhi me ||
Janaka said: “In the same way, when an embodied being is perishing and the life-breath departs, what destination does it attain in due course, according to time and circumstance? Tell me clearly what ‘place’ it reaches at death.”
जनक उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse frames a philosophical inquiry central to Śānti Parva: the ‘post-mortem destination’ of the embodied self is not random but conditioned by time, circumstance, and (implicitly) one’s karma and inner state at death. Janaka seeks a precise account of the soul’s course after the life-breath departs.
King Janaka, in a dialogue on liberation and the nature of the self, asks the teacher to explain what happens at the moment of death—specifically, where the departing being goes ‘in due course’ when it leaves the body.