Shloka 6
Dehānta (Cyavana) and Upapatti: Kāśyapa’s Questions and the Siddha’s Account of Death, Pain, and Karmic Re-embodiment
सिद्ध उवाच आयु:कीर्तिकराणीह यानि कृत्यानि सेवते । शरीरग्रहणे यस्मिंस्तेषु क्षीणेषु सर्वश:
siddha uvāca āyuḥ-kīrti-karāṇīha yāni kṛtyāni sevate | śarīra-grahaṇe yasmiṁs teṣu kṣīṇeṣu sarvaśaḥ ||
Le Siddha dit : «Ô Kāśyapa, dans ce monde, quels que soient les actes qu’un homme accomplit et qui engendrent longévité et renommée deviennent les causes par lesquelles il obtient un corps. Une fois le corps assumé, lorsque toutes ces œuvres se sont entièrement épuisées en donnant leurs fruits, alors la durée de vie impartie à l’être commence elle aussi à décroître. En cet état, il se tourne vers des actes contraires et nuisibles ; et lorsque l’heure de la ruine approche, son intelligence se trouve pervertie.»
सिद्ध उवाच
Educational Q&A
Meritorious actions can lead to embodied existence and its enjoyments (longevity, reputation), but once their results are exhausted, decline sets in; near the end, one may fall into harmful conduct and confused judgment—so one should cultivate steady discernment and dharmic restraint rather than rely on temporary karmic fruits.
A Siddha addresses a listener (contextually a sage such as Kāśyapa in the surrounding discourse) and explains the karmic mechanism behind embodiment and decline: deeds ripen into a body and its allotted span, and when those deeds are spent, the being’s condition deteriorates and the mind tends toward error as death approaches.