Shloka 23
कर्मनाशाभावः, गर्भे जीवप्रवेशः, आचारधर्मोपदेशः
Karma’s Non-Extinction, Jīva’s Entry into the Embryo, and Instruction on Conduct-Dharma
जो धर्मके अनुसार बर्ताव करता है, वह जहाँ जिस अवस्थामें हो, वहाँ उसी स्थितिमें उसको अपने कर्मानुसार उत्तम फलकी प्राप्ति होती है और वह धीरे-धीरे अधिक काल बीतनेपर संसार-सागरसे तर जाता है ।।
evaṁ pūrvakṛtaṁ karma nityaṁ jantuḥ prapadyate | sarvaṁ tatkāraṇaṁ yena vikṛto ’yam ihāgataḥ ||
ダルマにかなって振る舞う者は、どこにあろうと、いかなる境遇にあろうと、その場その位において己の業に応じた勝れた果を得る。そして時を重ね、長き歳月ののち、少しずつ輪廻の大海を渡りきる。かくして生きとし生けるものは、過去世に為した行いの報いに常に遭う。まことに業こそが因となり、この自己は—本来は不変のブラフマンであるにもかかわらず—変じたかのように現れ、この世に生を受け、己の行いに応じて経験を受けるのである。
ब्राह्मण उवाच
Educational Q&A
Past actions (pūrvakṛta karma) inevitably bear fruit: the embodied being repeatedly meets their results. Even though the self is, in essence, changeless Brahman, embodiment and worldly experience are explained as arising due to karma—karma is presented as the operative cause for birth and the seeming transformation.
A Brahmin speaker delivers a doctrinal explanation within the Ashvamedhika Parva, emphasizing moral causality: beings experience outcomes shaped by prior deeds, and the cycle of birth in the world is linked to karma, despite the self’s ultimate unchanging nature.