Shloka 26
Go-apahāra (Cattle Theft), Go-dāna (Cow-Gift), and Suvarṇa-dakṣiṇā (Gold Fee): Karmic Consequence and Purificatory Merit
पूर्णे वर्षमहस्रान्ते क्षीणे कर्मणि दुष्कृते । प्राप्स्यसे शाश्वताल्लॉकाज्जितान् स्वेनैव कर्मणा
pūrṇe varṣa-sahasrānte kṣīṇe karmaṇi duṣkṛte | prāpsyase śāśvatāl lokāj jitān svenaiva karmaṇā ||
“ആയിരം വർഷം പൂർത്തിയായപ്പോൾ, നിന്റെ ദുഷ്കൃത്യഫലം ക്ഷയിച്ചാൽ, നീ നിന്റെ തന്നെ കർമംകൊണ്ട് നേടിയ ശാശ്വത ലോകങ്ങളെ പ്രാപിക്കും.”
ब्राह्मण उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse teaches karmic moral causality: wrongdoing yields a finite period of suffering until its consequence is exhausted; thereafter, one can rise to higher, even ‘eternal’ realms through one’s own meritorious actions.
A Brāhmaṇa recounts a pronouncement about post-mortem fate: after a long, specified term (a thousand years) during which the fruit of an evil act is experienced, the person is told they will attain enduring worlds earned by their own karma—signaling release after expiation and the reassertion of merit.