Shloka 78
Sarasvatī–Tārkṣya Saṃvāda: Agnihotra-vidhi, Dāna-phala, and Mokṣa-prasaṅga (सरस्वती–तार्क्ष्यसंवादः)
तत्रास्य स्वकृतं कर्म छायेवानुगतं सदा । फलत्यथ सुखाहें वा दुःखाहों वाथ जायते,वहाँ दूसरे स्थूल शरीरमें उसके पूर्वजन्मका किया हुआ कर्म छायाकी भाँति सदा उसके पीछे लगा रहता और यथासमय अपना फल देता है। इसलिये जीव सुख अथवा दुःख भोगनेके योग्य होकर जन्म लेता है। यमराजके विधान (पुण्य और पापके फल-भोग)-में नियुक्त हुआ जीव अपने शुभ अथवा अशुभ लक्षणोंद्वारा अपनेको मिले हुए सुख अथवा दुःखका निवारण करनेमें असमर्थ है। यह बात ज्ञान-दृष्टिवाले महात्मा पुरुषोंद्वारा देखी जाती है
tatrāsya svakṛtaṃ karma chāyevā'nugataṃ sadā | phalaty atha sukhāheṃ vā duḥkhāheṃ vātha jāyate ||
There, in that new embodied state, a being’s own self-performed deeds follow him always like a shadow and, in due course, ripen into their results. Thus the living being is born fit to experience either happiness or suffering. Bound by the ordinance of Yama—namely, the enjoyment of the fruits of merit and demerit—he is unable, by his own auspicious or inauspicious marks, to avert the pleasure or pain allotted to him. This is what the great-souled, clear-sighted knowers perceive.
मार्कण्डेय उवाच
Educational Q&A
One’s own actions (karma) inevitably accompany the individual like a shadow and ripen into happiness or suffering at the proper time; under Yama’s dispensation of puṇya and pāpa, the embodied being cannot simply cancel the allotted results by external signs or personal wish—this causal order is discerned by the wise.
Mārkaṇḍeya is instructing his listeners on the moral mechanics of rebirth: when a being takes another body, prior deeds remain attached and later manifest as lived experiences of pleasure or pain, governed by the cosmic-juridical order associated with Yama.