Shloka 33
Sudeva Identifies Damayantī in Cedi (सुदेवेन दमयन्ती-परिचयः)
नूनं जन्मान्तरकृतं पापमापतितं महत् | अपक्रिमामिमां कष्टामापदं प्राप्तवत्यहम्,“निश्चय ही यह मेरे दूसरे जन्मोंके किये हुए पापका महान् फल प्राप्त हुआ है, जिससे मैं इस अनन्त कष्टमें पड़ गयी हूँ
nūnaṁ janmāntarakṛtaṁ pāpam āpatitaṁ mahat | apakrīmām imāṁ kaṣṭām āpadaṁ prāptavaty aham ||
Surely a great sin committed in some former birth has now come down upon me. It is the fruit of that wrongdoing that I have fallen into this grievous calamity, an unending misery.
बृहदश्चव उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse expresses a karmic moral logic: present suffering is understood as the ripened consequence (phala) of past wrongdoing, even from previous births, prompting ethical self-examination rather than blaming others.
In Bṛhadaśva’s narration, a woman voices despair and interprets her severe misfortune as the result of sins committed in former lives, framing her crisis within the Mahābhārata’s recurring theme of karma and the inevitability of consequences.