Shloka 44
श्रेयो-धर्मकर्मविचारः
Inquiry into Śreyas, Dharma, and Karma
सो<स्मादथ भ्रश्यति कालयोगात् कृष्णे तले तिष्ठति सर्वकृष्टे । यथा त्वयं सिद्धाति जीवलोक- स्तत् तेडभिधास्याम्यसुरप्रवीर
so 'smād atha bhraśyati kālayogāt kṛṣṇe tale tiṣṭhati sarvakṛṣṭe | yathā tvayaṃ siddhāti jīvalokas tat te 'bhidhāsyāmy asurapravīra ||
Bhishma dit : Ensuite, par l’œuvre du temps, un être déchoit — il descend au degré le plus sombre et le plus bas, comme vers une strate d’inframonde — et prend naissance parmi les formes d’existence les plus avilies. Et maintenant, ô héros éminent parmi les Asuras, je vais t’expliquer comment ce monde des êtres vivants, pris dans le cycle des montées et des chutes, parvient au véritable accomplissement : la délivrance.
भीष्म उवाच
Educational Q&A
Time and karma can cause an embodied being to fall into increasingly degraded states of existence; Bhishma then turns to the remedy—explaining the means by which beings caught in samsara can attain siddhi, i.e., liberation.
Bhishma addresses an Asura leader and describes the soul’s downward movement under the force of time and wrongdoing, setting up his forthcoming instruction on how liberation is achieved despite the cycle of ascent and decline.