Shloka 57
कर्मण: पुरुष: कर्ता शुभस्याप्यशुभस्य वा । स फलं तदुपाश्नाति कथं कर्ता स्विदीश्वर:,“मैं सोचता हूँ, शुभ और अशुभ कर्म करनेवाला जो पुरुष है, वह अपने उन कर्मोंका फल कैसे भोगता है तथा ईश्वर उन कर्मफलोंका रचयिता कैसे होता है? ब्रह्मवेत्ताओंमें श्रेष्ठ मुनीश्वर! सुख और दु:खकी प्राप्ति करानेवाले कर्मोमें मनुष्योंकी प्रवृत्ति कैसे होती है? मनुष्यका किया कर्म इस लोकमें ही उसका अनुसरण करता है अथवा पारलौकिक शरीरमें भी
karmaṇaḥ puruṣaḥ kartā śubhasyāpy aśubhasya vā | sa phalaṃ tad upāśnāti kathaṃ kartā svid īśvaraḥ ||
Vaiśampāyana said: “A person is the doer of actions—whether auspicious or inauspicious—and he himself partakes of their results. How, then, can the Lord be called the doer? O best of the knowers of Brahman, how do human beings come to engage in deeds that bring about pleasure and pain? Does a person’s action follow him only in this world, or does it accompany him into the body he takes in the next?”
वैशम्पायन उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse frames a classic ethical-philosophical problem: if humans are the agents who perform good and bad actions and experience their fruits, in what sense can God (Īśvara) be called the doer or author of those results? It invites reflection on moral responsibility, karmic causation, and the relation between individual agency and divine governance.
Vaiśampāyana reports a question being posed to a great Brahman-knowing sage: why humans undertake pleasure- and pain-producing actions, how karmic results are experienced, and whether karma follows a person only in this life or also into the next embodied existence—setting up a doctrinal discussion on karma and rebirth.