Varaha Purana 198.25: Adhyaya 198, Shloka 25
Description of the Torments within the Cycle of Rebirth: Hymn to Yama and the Introduction to Citragupta’s Administration
Uttara Bhāga · Dharma-yama-saṃvāda (Request: demonstration of karmic differentiation)
दर्शयस्व महाभाग सर्वलोकस्य चिन्तक ॥ यथा कर्मविशेषाणां दर्शनार्थं करोति सः
darśayasva mahābhāga sarvalokasya cintaka || yathā karmaviśeṣāṇāṃ darśanārthaṃ karoti saḥ
darshayasva mahAbhAga sarvalokasya chintaka || yathA karmavisheShANAM darshanArthaM karoti saH
महाराज, आप तो सब दुनिया का ख्याल रखते हैं। मुझे दिखाओ कि वो कैसे लोगों के काम देख कर उनका हिसाब लगाता है, और उन्हें समझाता है कि उनके करम का क्या फल मिलेगा।
Sandhi Notes
- darśanārthaṃ = darśana-artham (a + a sandhi)
- karmaviśeṣāṇāṃ is a tatpuruṣa compound
Ṛṣiputra
How does the overseer of all worlds practically demonstrate the distinctions among specific karmas for instruction and judgment?
Karma-viśeṣa: moral reality is granular; intention, context, and act-type shape outcomes.
Practice viveka: examine not only whether an act is 'good/bad' but its motive, harm/benefit, and duty-context.
Actions are not judged generically; karma is differentiated by viśeṣa (specificity), and the system demonstrates these distinctions for clarity and justice.
Nuanced moral discernment leads to precise self-correction; careless lumping of actions breeds ethical confusion and repeated faults.
Varāha Purāṇa: request culminates in being led to Citragupta (198.28)
FAQs
It illustrates a didactic technique in Purāṇic literature: ethical instruction through vivid exemplification of karmic differentiation.
No geographic site is named; the focus is on cosmological administration and moral pedagogy.
It stresses that actions are not morally uniform; they are differentiated (viśeṣa) and evaluated accordingly.
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