Shloka 63
Śama-prāptiḥ — Gautamī–Lubdhaka–Pannaga–Mṛtyu–Kāla-saṃvāda
Restraint through the Analysis of Karma and Time
मृत्युस्त्वं चैव हेतुर्हि बालस्यास्य विनाशने । उभयं कारणं मन्ये न कारणमकारणम्
mṛtyus tvaṃ caiva hetur hi bālasyāsya vināśane | ubhayaṃ kāraṇaṃ manye na kāraṇam akāraṇam ||
« Toi et la Mort êtes bien les causes de la perte de cet enfant. Je vous tiens tous deux pour responsables ; je n’admets pas que l’un seul soit blâmé tandis que l’autre serait sans faute ou sans part dans la cause. »
लुब्धक उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse frames ethical causality as shared: when harm occurs, responsibility may lie in multiple contributing causes (here, both the immediate agent and the overarching force of mortality). It rejects the simplification that only one party is culpable while the other is entirely without causal role.
The hunter addresses Death, asserting that the child’s demise cannot be attributed to a single factor. He argues that both Death and the addressed party (implicitly the proximate cause) together constitute the cause of the child’s destruction.