Shloka 11
महाभिष-गङ्गा-दर्शनं वसूनां शापकथनं च
Mahābhiṣa Encounters Gaṅgā; The Vasus Explain Their Curse
वनस्पतीनोषधीक्षाविशन्ति अपो वायु पृथिवीं चान्तरिक्षम् चतुष्पदं द्विपदं चापि सर्व- मेवम्भूता गर्भभूता भवन्ति,जीव जलरूपसे गिरकर वनस्पतियों और ओषधियोंमें प्रवेश करते हैं। जल, वायु, पृथ्वी और अन्तरिक्ष आदिमें प्रवेश करते हुए कर्मानुसार पशु अथवा मनुष्य सब कुछ होते हैं। इस प्रकार भूमिपर आकर फिर पूर्वोक्त क्रमके अनुसार गर्भभावको प्राप्त होते हैं
Aṣṭaka uvāca: vanaspatīnoṣadhīkṣāviśanti apo vāyuṃ pṛthivīṃ cāntarikṣaṃ catuṣpadaṃ dvipadaṃ cāpi sarvam; evaṃbhūtā garbhabhūtā bhavanti, jīva jalarūpase girakara vanaspatīyoṃ aura oṣadhiyoṃ meṃ praveśa karate haiṃ. jala, vāyu, pṛthvī aura antarikṣa ādi meṃ praveśa karate hue karmānusāra paśu athavā manuṣya sab kuch hote haiṃ. is prakāra bhūmi par ākara phira pūrvokta krama ke anusāra garbhabhāva ko prāpta hote haiṃ.
Aṣṭaka said: “Living beings, taking the form of water, enter trees and medicinal plants; they pass into water, wind, earth, and the mid-space. According to their deeds, they become all forms—four-footed creatures and two-footed humans alike. Thus, arriving upon the earth, they again attain the state of conception in the previously described order.”
अष्टक उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse teaches a karmic cosmology: beings circulate through elemental forms (water, wind, earth, mid-space) and biological forms (plants, animals, humans). One’s future embodiment—animal or human—is shaped by karma, and the process culminates again in conception (garbhabhāva), emphasizing the continuity of saṃsāra.
Aṣṭaka is explaining how living beings migrate through different states of existence. He describes their entry into plants and the elements, and how, by the force of past deeds, they take birth as various creatures, returning again to the condition of conception in an ordered cycle.