Shloka 70
Śama-prāptiḥ — Gautamī–Lubdhaka–Pannaga–Mṛtyu–Kāla-saṃvāda
Restraint through the Analysis of Karma and Time
काल उवाच न हाहं नाप्ययं मृत्युर्नायं लुब्धक पन्नग: । किल्बिषी जन्तुमरणे न वयं हि प्रयोजका:
kāla uvāca | na hāhaṃ nāpy ayaṃ mṛtyur nāyaṃ lubdhaka pannagaḥ | kilbiṣī jantu-maraṇe na vayaṃ hi prayojakāḥ ||
時は言った。「狩人よ、この生きものの死の咎は、我にも、この死にも、この蛇にもない。われらは誰かの死をそそのかす者でも、死をもたらす手先でもない。真の因は他にある――その者みずからの業（カルマ）と、その果を熟させる法（ダルマ）の理にこそある。」
काल उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse teaches that Time (kāla), Death (mṛtyu), and apparent instruments (like a serpent or a hunter) are not morally culpable as independent causes of a being’s death; rather, outcomes unfold according to the deeper law of karma and the ripening of prior actions.
Time personified addresses a hunter and denies that he, Death, or the serpent should be regarded as the guilty party in the creature’s death, shifting the discussion from surface-level blame to the ethical-metaphysical framework of karmic causation.