Shloka 52
श्रेयो-धर्मकर्मविचारः
Inquiry into Śreyas, Dharma, and Karma
प्रजाविसर्ग तु सशेषकाले स्थानानि स्वान्येव सरन्ति जीवा: । निःशेषतस्तत्पदं यान्ति चान्ते सर्वे देवा ये सदृशा मनुष्या:
prajāvisarga tu saśeṣakāle sthānāni svānyeva saranti jīvāḥ | niḥśeṣatastatpadaṃ yānti cānte sarve devā ye sadṛśā manuṣyāḥ ||
ビーシュマは説く。創造が再び起こる時、滅尽の瞬間に業の果がなお尽きていなかった衆生は、残余の果報を受けるため、かつて得たのと同じ位階・同じ世界へと自然に帰ってゆく。だが、一劫の終わりまでに天の位を支えていた業果を完全に使い尽くした者は—その天界そのものが滅びる時—次の循環において再び神として生まれるのではなく、同等の行いをもつ他の衆生と同じく、人間の境遇に生を受ける。
भीष्म उवाच
Educational Q&A
Karmic results govern post-dissolution destiny: if karmic fruits remain unexhausted at pralaya, beings resume the same realm in the next creation to finish that experience; if those fruits are fully exhausted by the aeon’s end, the divine status does not persist, and they take birth according to comparable deeds—often as humans.
In Bhīṣma’s instruction in the Śānti Parva, he describes how beings are redistributed after cosmic dissolution and re-creation, distinguishing between those with remaining karmic residue and those whose heaven-sustaining merit has been fully spent.