Adhyaya 15 — Karmic Retribution: Rebirths After Naraka and the King’s Compassion in Hell
पङ्ग्वन्धो वधिरः कुष्ठी यक्ष्मणा च प्रपीडितः । मुखरोगाक्षिरोगैश्च गुदरोगैश्च बाध्यते ॥
paṅgv-andho vadhiraḥ kuṣṭhī yakṣmaṇā ca prapīḍitaḥ / mukha-rogākṣi-rogaiś ca guda-rogaiś ca bādhyate
Dia menjadi tempang, buta dan pekak; diserang kusta serta diseksa oleh penyakit batuk kering. Dia juga diganggu penyakit mulut, penyakit mata, dan penyakit dubur.
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Adharma is depicted as ripening into embodied suffering—loss of faculties and chronic illness—reinforcing the purāṇic view that moral order (ṛta/dharma) is mirrored in the quality of one’s birth and health.
This is ethical instruction (dharma/karma-phala) rather than cosmogenesis or dynastic genealogy; it functions as normative teaching embedded within the Purāṇa’s broader didactic scope.
The ‘closing’ of senses (blindness/deafness) can be read as symbolic of spiritual ignorance produced by theft—misappropriation dulls discernment and obstructs inner ‘seeing’ and ‘hearing’ of dharma.