Shloka 71
Śama-prāptiḥ — Gautamī–Lubdhaka–Pannaga–Mṛtyu–Kāla-saṃvāda
Restraint through the Analysis of Karma and Time
अकरोद् यदयं कर्म तन्नोडर्जुनक चोदकम् | विनाशहेतुर्नान्यो5स्य वध्यते5यं स्वकर्मणा
akarod yad ayaṁ karma tan noḍarjunaka codakam | vināśahetur nānyo 'sya vadhyate 'yaṁ svakarmaṇā, arjunaka |
Kāla dijo: «Oh Arjunaka, el acto que este ha cometido—solo ese acto ha impulsado el desenlace. No hay otra causa de su destrucción. Este ser es llevado a la muerte por su propia acción.»
काल उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse asserts moral causality: a being’s suffering and even death arise primarily from its own actions (svakarma), not from an external agent. Kāla frames destruction as the ripening of prior deeds, emphasizing personal responsibility within the moral order.
Kāla (Time/Death personified) addresses Arjunaka and explains that the child’s demise is not caused by someone else’s hostility or intervention; rather, the child’s own past action has become the decisive prompt for the fatal outcome.