Shloka 20
Svargārohaṇa-parva Adhyāya 5 — Karmaphala-Nirdeśa and Phalāśruti (कर्मफलनिर्देशः फलश्रुतिश्च)
विवेश सोम॑ धर्मात्मा कर्मणो<न्ते महारथ: । चन्द्रमाके महातेजस्वी और प्रतापी पुत्र जो वर्चा हैं, वे ही पुरुषसिंह अर्जुनके पुत्र होकर अभिमन्यु नामसे विख्यात हुए थे। उन्होंने क्षत्रिय-धर्मके अनुसार ऐसा युद्ध किया था, जैसा दूसरा कोई पुरुष कभी नहीं कर सका था। उन धर्मात्मा महारथी अभिमन्युने अपना कार्य पूरा करके चन्द्रमामें ही प्रवेश किया ।। १८-१९ ह।। आविवेश रविं कर्णो निहतः पुरुषर्षभ:
āviveśa raviṁ karṇo nihataḥ puruṣarṣabhaḥ |
Vaiśampāyana said: Karṇa, that bull among men, having been slain, entered into the Sun. Thus the epic frames his death not as mere defeat but as a return to his cosmic source, suggesting the completion of a destined course shaped by valor, duty, and the moral consequences of war.
वैशम्पायन उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse presents death as a return to one’s cosmic origin: Karṇa, born of the Sun, is said to merge into the Sun after being slain. It underscores how heroic lives in the Mahābhārata are interpreted within a moral-cosmic framework where deeds culminate in an ordained completion rather than random annihilation.
Vaiśampāyana narrates the post-war accounting of major heroes’ ends. Here he states that Karṇa, once killed, ‘entered the Sun,’ a poetic-theological way of describing his departure from the world and his reunion with his divine source (Ravi).