Shloka 25
Purohita-Niyoga and the Brahma–Kṣatra Concord
Aila–Kaśyapa Saṃvāda
कश्यप उवाच एवमस्मिन् वर्तते लोक एव नामुत्रैवं वर्तते राजपुत्र । प्रेत्यैतयोरन्तरावान् विशेषो यो वै पुण्यं चरते यश्च पापम्
kaśyapa uvāca evam asmin vartate loka eva nāmutraivaṁ vartate rājaputra | pretyaitayor antarāvān viśeṣo yo vai puṇyaṁ carate yaś ca pāpam ||
Kashyapa berkata: “Wahai putra raja, demikianlah yang tampak di dunia ini; di alam seberang tidak berjalan demikian. Setelah kematian, ketika pelaku kebajikan dan pelaku dosa berangkat ke sana, perbedaan besar muncul dalam keadaan mereka masing-masing.”
कश्यप उवाच
Educational Q&A
Kashyapa teaches that while worldly life may blur or delay moral outcomes, after death the consequences of one’s actions become decisively differentiated: merit leads to a higher state and sin to a lower one.
In a didactic exchange in the Shanti Parva, the sage Kashyapa addresses a prince, contrasting the apparent patterns of reward and punishment in this life with the clearer, more consequential moral reckoning that occurs in the afterlife.