Shloka 32
Śuka’s Guṇa-Transcendence and Vyāsa’s Consolation (शुकगति-वर्णनम्)
यथा क्षेत्र मृदूभूतमद्भिराप्लावितं तथा । जनयत्यड्कुरं कर्म नृणां तद्वत् पुनर्भवम्
yathā kṣetraṃ mṛdūbhūtam adbhir āplāvitaṃ tathā | janayaty aṅkuraṃ karma nṛṇāṃ tadvat punarbhavam ||
Janaka said: “Just as a field that has been well-ploughed, made soft, and irrigated at the proper time brings forth a sprout from the seed that is sown, so too a person’s deeds—whether wholesome or unwholesome—generate rebirth.”
जनक उवाच
Educational Q&A
Rebirth is not random: it is generated by one’s own karma. As a prepared and watered field makes a seed sprout, so moral and immoral actions mature into future embodiment and experience.
In a reflective, instructional exchange in the Śānti Parva, King Janaka explains a causal principle using an agrarian metaphor, linking human conduct (karma) to its inevitable fruition as renewed existence (punarbhava).