Shloka 8

Devanagari script

युधिछिर उवाच कथं स्वर्गे गति: सर्प कर्मणां च फल ध्रुवम्‌ अशरीरस्य दृश्येत प्रब्रूहि विषयांश्व मे,युधिष्ठिरने पूछा--सर्प! मनुष्यको स्वर्गकी प्राप्ति और कर्मोका निश्चयरूपसे मिलनेवाला फल किस प्रकार देखनेमें आता है एवं देहाभिमानसे रहित पुरुषकी गति किस प्रकार होती है? इन विषयोंको मुझसे भलीभाँति कहिये

Transliteration

yudhiṣṭhira uvāca | kathaṁ svarge gatiḥ sarpa karmaṇāṁ ca phalaṁ dhruvam | aśarīrasya dṛśyeta prabrūhi viṣayānś ca me ||

Translation

Yudhiṣṭhira said: “O Serpent, how is one’s passage to heaven understood, and how is the sure, unfailing fruit of actions seen to come about? And how is the course of one who is ‘without body’—free from bodily identification—made evident? Explain these matters to me clearly.”

Word by Word

• {'katham': 'how?', 'svarge': 'in heaven

• in the heavenly world', 'gatiḥ': 'going, course, destiny, attainment', 'sarpa': 'O serpent (address to a Nāga)', 'karmaṇām': 'of actions (karma)', 'phalam': 'fruit, result, consequence', 'dhruvam': 'fixed, certain, unfailing', 'aśarīrasya': 'of the bodiless

• of one not identified with the body', 'dṛśyeta': 'is seen/understood

• becomes evident', 'prabrūhi': 'tell, explain (clearly)', 'viṣayān': 'topics, matters, points of inquiry', 'me': 'to me

Speaker

युधिछिर उवाच

Characters & Entities

• Yudhiṣṭhira
• Sarpa (Nāga/serpent interlocutor)
• Svarga (heaven)

Educational Q&A

What is the core teaching?

The verse frames a dharmic inquiry into moral causality: actions yield definite results (karma-phala), and spiritual progress is not merely physical but depends on inner detachment from bodily identity (aśarīratva), which shapes one’s destiny beyond death.

What is happening in the narrative?

Yudhiṣṭhira addresses a serpent (Nāga) as a teacher-like interlocutor and asks for an explanation of three linked issues: the attainment of heaven, the certainty of karmic results, and the ‘movement’ or destiny of a person who is free from body-identification.