Shloka 12
Dvaipāyana–Kīṭa Saṃvāda: Karmic Memory, Fear of Death, and Embodied Pleasure
पितृमातृसमायोगे पुत्रत्वं जायते यथा । हिंसां कृत्वावश: पापो भूयिष्ठं जायते तथा
pitṛmātṛsamāyoge putratvaṃ jāyate yathā | hiṃsāṃ kṛtvāvaśaḥ pāpo bhūyiṣṭhaṃ jāyate tathā ||
Bhīṣma dijo: «Así como la condición de hijo nace de la unión del padre y la madre, del mismo modo el hombre pecador que ha cometido violencia es arrastrado, impotente, a nacer una y otra vez—con mayor frecuencia en vientres manchados de pecado».
भीष्म उवाच
Educational Q&A
Violence (hiṃsā) generates powerful negative karma: once a person commits harm, he becomes compelled by its consequences to undergo repeated births, frequently in degraded or sinful conditions. The verse frames this as a causal certainty, like biological birth from parents.
In Anuśāsana Parva, Bhīṣma is instructing Yudhiṣṭhira on dharma and conduct. Here he uses an analogy—parental union producing a child—to stress the inevitability of karmic results from हिंसा, warning against harmful actions.