Shloka 20
Svargārohaṇa-parva Adhyāya 5 — Karmaphala-Nirdeśa and Phalāśruti (कर्मफलनिर्देशः फलश्रुतिश्च)
विवेश सोम॑ धर्मात्मा कर्मणो<न्ते महारथ: । चन्द्रमाके महातेजस्वी और प्रतापी पुत्र जो वर्चा हैं
āviveśa raviṁ karṇo nihataḥ puruṣarṣabhaḥ |
ヴァイシャンパーヤナは語った。人々の中の雄牛たるカルナは、討たれるや太陽へと帰入した。ゆえに叙事詩はその死を単なる敗北としてではなく、宇宙的な根源への回帰として描き、勇武と義務、そして戦の道徳的帰結によって形づくられた定めの道程が成就したことを示すのである。
वैशम्पायन उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse presents death as a return to one’s cosmic origin: Karṇa, born of the Sun, is said to merge into the Sun after being slain. It underscores how heroic lives in the Mahābhārata are interpreted within a moral-cosmic framework where deeds culminate in an ordained completion rather than random annihilation.
Vaiśampāyana narrates the post-war accounting of major heroes’ ends. Here he states that Karṇa, once killed, ‘entered the Sun,’ a poetic-theological way of describing his departure from the world and his reunion with his divine source (Ravi).