Shloka 24
वध्यमाने शरीरे तु देहनाशो भवत्युत । जीव: सड्क्रमते<न्यत्र कर्मबन्धनिबन्धन:
vadhyamāne śarīre tu dehanāśo bhavaty uta | jīvaḥ saṅkramate 'nyatra karmabandhanibandhanaḥ ||
When the body is being struck down, the destruction is only of the physical frame. The living self passes elsewhere, driven onward by the binding force of its own actions. Thus, what perishes is the body; the moral consequence of deeds carries the being to another state of existence.
व्याध उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse distinguishes bodily death from the continuity of the jīva: killing destroys the body, while the living self moves on according to karmic bondage. Ethical responsibility therefore lies in one’s actions and their consequences, not merely in the physical event of death.
The hunter (Vyādha) is instructing his listener in dharma and right understanding. In this passage he explains that death affects the body, whereas the jīva transmigrates elsewhere under the compulsion of karma, framing the discussion in terms of moral causality and spiritual insight.