Shloka 23
Śiva Grants the Pāśupata Astra (Pāśupata-Śastra Upadeśa) | शिवेन पाशुपतास्त्रदानम्
त्वया निपातिता युद्धे स्वकर्मफलनिर्जिताम् । गतिं प्राप्स्यन्ति कौन्तेय यथास्वमरिकर्षण,'शत्रुओंका संहार करनेवाले कुन्तीकुमार! देवताओं, दानवों तथा राक्षसोंके जो अंश पृथ्वीपर उत्पन्न हुए हैं, वे युद्धमें तुम्हारे द्वारा मारे जाकर अपने कर्मफलके अनुसार यथोचित गति प्राप्त करेंगे
vaiśampāyana uvāca |
tvayā nipātitā yuddhe svakarmaphalanirjitām |
gatiṁ prāpsyanti kaunteya yathāsvam arikarṣaṇa ||
Vaiśampāyana said: “O son of Kuntī, subduer of foes—those who fall in battle by your hand will attain the destined course they have earned through the fruits of their own deeds, each according to his karma.”
वैशम्पायन उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse frames the results of battle within the law of karma: those slain attain a destination proportionate to their own deeds. It shifts emphasis from personal agency as revenge to agency as participation in a moral order where outcomes are ‘earned’ (nirjitā) by prior conduct.
Vaiśampāyana addresses a Pāṇḍava as ‘Kaunteya’ and ‘Arikarṣaṇa,’ stating that enemies felled by him in war will reach their appropriate posthumous ‘gati’ according to their own karmic deserts—presenting the coming violence as aligned with cosmic and ethical causality.