Shloka 20
Adhyāya 118: Saciva-parīkṣā
Testing and Appointment of Ministers/Servants
थ्वा त्वं द्वीपित्वमापन्नो द्वीपीव्याप्रत्वमागत:
tvaṃ tvam dvīpitvam āpanno dvīpīvyāpratvam āgataḥ
毘湿摩は言った。「汝は豹の身となり、豹よりさらに進んだ—かくして獣の生を次々と巡ったのだ。汝はまず犬であり、次に豹となり、ついで虎の胎に入り、虎より狂れる象となり、象より獅子の胎に至った。そして力ある獅子として在りながら、再びシャラバの身を得たのである。」
भीष्म उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse illustrates saṃsāra governed by karma: moving into stronger or more dominant bodies is still bondage to birth, and ethical purification—not mere power or predatory success—is what leads beyond repeated embodiment.
Bhīṣma addresses a being (or interlocutor) by recounting its sequence of animal incarnations—dog to leopard to tiger to elephant to lion to śarabha—using the progression as a didactic example about the continuity of rebirth and the consequences of one’s tendencies and actions.