Shloka 17

अध्याय २९७ — श्रेयः, धृति, दान-नियमाः

Welfare, Steadfastness, and Norms of Giving

Devanagari script

भावितं कर्मयोगेन जायते तत्र तत्र ह । इदं शरीर वैदेह ग्रियते यत्र यत्र ह । तत्स्वभावो<परो दृष्टो विसर्ग: कर्मणस्तथा

Transliteration

bhāvitaṁ karmayogena jāyate tatra tatra ha | idaṁ śarīra vaideha mriyate yatra yatra ha | tat-svabhāvo 'paro dṛṣṭo visargaḥ karmaṇas tathā ||

Translation

हे वैदेहराज! हे शरीर जिथे-जिथे मृत्यू पावते तिथेच नष्ट होते; आणि कर्मयोगाने संस्कारित होऊन, प्रारब्धाच्या वेगाने जीव जिथे-तिथे पुन्हा जन्म घेतो. अशा रीतीने कर्मफलातून उद्भवणारा हा स्वभावसिद्ध पुनर्जन्म (विसर्ग) दिसून येतो.

Word by Word

• {'bhāvitam': 'formed, conditioned, brought to maturity (by prior causes)', 'karmayogena': 'through the connection/operation of karma

• by the causal linkage of action', 'jāyate': 'is born, comes into existence', 'tatra tatra': 'here and there

• in various places/conditions', 'ha': 'indeed (emphatic particle)', 'idaṁ śarīram': 'this body', 'vaideha': 'O Vaideha

• epithet of the king of Videha (Janaka)', 'mriyate': 'dies', 'yatra yatra': 'wherever', 'tat-svabhāvaḥ': 'that very nature

• its inherent character', 'aparaḥ': 'another, further (i.e., subsequent state)', 'dṛṣṭaḥ': 'is observed/seen', 'visargaḥ': 'emission, projection, sending forth

• here: the onward movement into another birth', 'karmaṇaḥ': 'of karma

• arising from action (and its fruition)', 'tathā': 'thus, in that manner'}

Speaker

पराशर उवाच

Characters & Entities

• Parāśara
• Vaideha (King of Videha, Janaka)

Educational Q&A

What is the core teaching?

Death ends a particular body, not the causal stream of karma. Actions (and their ripened results) condition the next birth; therefore rebirth is presented as a natural consequence of karma rather than a random event.

What is happening in the narrative?

Parāśara addresses Vaideha (Janaka), explaining the mechanism of saṁsāra: the body dies wherever it is, and the being—conditioned by karmic causality—arises again elsewhere, showing the observable pattern of transmigration driven by karma.