Shloka 22
Karma-Phala Rahasya and the Ethics of Dāna (कर्मफल-रहस्यं दानधर्मश्च)
यथा धेनुसहस्रेषु वत्सो विन्दति मातरम् | एवं पूर्वकृतं कर्म कर्तारमनुगच्छति
yathā dhenusahasreṣu vatso vindati mātaram | evaṃ pūrvakṛtaṃ karma kartāram anugacchati ||
ಭೀಷ್ಮನು ಹೇಳಿದನು— ಸಾವಿರ ಹಸುಗಳ ನಡುವೆ ಕರು ತನ್ನ ತಾಯಿಯನ್ನು ಕಂಡುಕೊಳ್ಳುವಂತೆ, ಹಿಂದೆಯೇ ಮಾಡಿದ ಕರ್ಮವೂ ತನ್ನ ಕರ್ತನನ್ನು ಗುರುತಿಸಿ ಅವನನ್ನು ಅನುಸರಿಸುತ್ತದೆ.
भीष्म उवाच
Educational Q&A
Past actions are inescapably connected to the agent: karma does not vanish or misidentify its recipient, but returns to the very doer with appropriate results, just as a calf unfailingly finds its own mother.
In Bhishma’s instruction on dharma and conduct, he uses a vivid pastoral simile—calf and mother-cow—to explain the certainty and precision with which karmic consequences track the person who performed the deed.