Shloka 41
Adhyaya 14 — The Messenger of Yama Explains Karmic Retribution and the Causes of Naraka Torments
यावतोऽक्षिनिमेषांस्तु पापमेभिर्नृभिः कृतम् ।
तावद्वर्षसहस्राणि नेत्रात्ति प्राप्नुवन्त्युत ॥
yāvato 'kṣinimeṣāṃs tu pāpam ebhir nṛbhiḥ kṛtam /
tāvad varṣasahasrāṇi netrātti prāpnuvanty uta
For as many instants of blinking as the sin was committed by these men, for that many thousands of years they undergo the tearing out of the eyes.
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FAQs
The verse teaches meticulous moral causality: even momentary indulgence is not ‘small’ if repeated; karmic accounting is precise, and suffering duration is expressed as proportionate to the frequency of wrongdoing.
Not a pancalakṣaṇa core item; it is a dharma-upadeśa section using time-measures to impress karmic certainty.
‘Blink-instants’ symbolize subtle, almost unconscious lapses. The teaching warns against micro-habits (vāsanā) that accumulate into long-term bondage and pain.