Shloka 35
पञ्चवर्णोत्पत्तिः — The Origin of the Five-Colored Fiery Being and Ritual-Disruptor Lineages
जन्तुस्तु कर्मभिस्तैस्तै: स्वकृतैः प्रेत्य दु:खित: । तददुःखप्रतिघातार्थमपुण्यां योनिमाप्लुते
jantus tu karmabhis tais taiḥ svakṛtaiḥ pretya duḥkhitaḥ | tad-aduḥkha-pratighātārtham apuṇyāṁ yonim āplute ||
The living being, afflicted after death by those very deeds it has done itself, enters an unmeritorious womb in order to counteract that suffering—seeking relief through another birth shaped by its own karma.
व्याध उवाच
Educational Q&A
One suffers after death due to one’s own actions, and rebirth occurs in accordance with karma; even an inferior or painful birth is portrayed as a karmic means by which prior suffering is countered and worked out.
In the dharma-instruction dialogue, the hunter (vyādha) explains to his listener the mechanism of karmic consequence: the soul, distressed by its self-made deeds after death, takes another birth—sometimes in an unmeritorious womb—driven by the need to neutralize or exhaust that suffering.