Skanda Purana — Brahma Khanda, Shloka 73

Devanagari script

यम उवाच व्यग्रोऽहं सततं ब्रह्मन्प्राणिनां सुखदुःखिनाम् । तत्तत्कर्मानुसारेण गतिं दातुं सुखेतराम्

Transliteration

yama uvāca vyagro'haṃ satataṃ brahmanprāṇināṃ sukhaduḥkhinām | tattatkarmānusāreṇa gatiṃ dātuṃ sukhetarām

Translation

ယမ မိန့်တော်မူသည်– “ဟေ ဘြာဟ္မဏ! သတ္တဝါတို့၏ သုခနှင့် ဒုက္ခကို ခံစားရာ၌ ကျွန်ုပ်သည် အမြဲတမ်း အလုပ်များနေသည်။ တစ်ဦးချင်း၏ ကမ္မအလိုက် သက်ဆိုင်ရာ ဂတိကို—သုခဖြစ်စေ မဖြစ်စေ—ပေးအပ်ရသည်။”

Word by Word

• यमः: Yama
• यमः: Karta (Subject/कर्ता)
• Type: Noun
• Root: यम (प्रातिपदिक)
• Form: पुंलिङ्ग, प्रथमा-विभक्ति, एकवचन

• उवाच: said
• उवाच: Kriya (Action/क्रिया)
• Type: Verb
• Root: वच् (धातु)
• Form: लिट्-लकार (Perfect), प्रथम-पुरुष, एकवचन; परस्मैपद

• व्यग्रः: busy, occupied
• व्यग्रः: Visheshana (Qualifier/विशेषण)
• Type: Adjective
• Root: व्यग्र (प्रातिपदिक)
• Form: पुंलिङ्ग, प्रथमा-विभक्ति, एकवचन; विशेषण (अहम्)

• अहम्: I
• अहम्: Karta (Subject/कर्ता)
• Type: Noun
• Root: अस्मद् (सर्वनाम-प्रातिपदिक)
• Form: प्रथमा-विभक्ति, एकवचन; सर्वनाम

• सततम्: constantly
• सततम्: Kriya-visheshana (Adverbial)
• Type: Indeclinable
• Root: सतत (प्रातिपदिक/अव्ययीभाववत्)
• Form: क्रियाविशेषण-अव्यय (adverb)

• ब्रह्मन्: O Brahman (sage)
• ब्रह्मन्: Sambodhana (Address/सम्बोधन)
• Type: Noun
• Root: ब्रह्मन् (प्रातिपदिक)
• Form: नपुंसकलिङ्ग, सम्बोधन-विभक्ति (Vocative), एकवचन

• प्राणिनाम्: of living beings
• प्राणिनाम्: Sambandha (Genitive relation)
• Type: Noun
• Root: प्राणिन् (प्रातिपदिक)
• Form: पुंलिङ्ग, षष्ठी-विभक्ति (6th/Genitive), बहुवचन

• सुखदुःखिनाम्: of the happy and the unhappy
• सुखदुःखिनाम्: Visheshana (Qualifier/विशेषण)
• Type: Adjective
• Root: सुखिन् (प्रातिपदिक) + दुःखिन् (प्रातिपदिक)
• Form: द्वन्द्व-समास (सुखिनश्च दुःखिनश्च); पुंलिङ्ग, षष्ठी-विभक्ति, बहुवचन; विशेषण (प्राणिनाम्)

• तत्: each respective
• तत्: Visheshana (Qualifier/विशेषण)
• Type: Adjective
• Root: तद् (सर्वनाम-प्रातिपदिक)
• Form: नपुंसकलिङ्ग, अव्ययीभाववत् पुनरुक्ति-प्रयोग (tad-tad = each/that respective); द्वितीया-सम्बन्ध

• तत्: that (repeated)
• तत्: Visheshana (Qualifier/विशेषण)
• Type: Adjective
• Root: तद् (सर्वनाम-प्रातिपदिक)
• Form: पुनरुक्ति-भाग (tad-tad)

• कर्म: deed, action
• कर्म: Sambandha (Compound member)
• Type: Noun
• Root: कर्मन् (प्रातिपदिक)
• Form: नपुंसकलिङ्ग, प्रातिपदिक-आधार (समासाङ्ग)

• अनुसारेण: according to
• अनुसारेण: Karana (Instrument/करण)
• Type: Noun
• Root: अनुसार (प्रातिपदिक)
• Form: पुंलिङ्ग, तृतीया-विभक्ति (3rd/Instrumental), एकवचन; (समासे: कर्म + अनुसार)

• गतिम्: destination, course
• गतिम्: Karma (Object/कर्म)
• Type: Noun
• Root: गति (प्रातिपदिक)
• Form: स्त्रीलिङ्ग, द्वितीया-विभक्ति (2nd/Accusative), एकवचन

• दातुम्: to give
• दातुम्: Prayojana (Purpose/प्रयोजन)
• Type: Verb
• Root: दा (धातु)
• Form: तुमुन्-प्रत्ययान्त (Infinitive), परस्मैपद-धातु

• सुखेतराम्: other-than-happy (painful)
• सुखेतराम्: Visheshana (Qualifier/विशेषण)
• Type: Adjective
• Root: सुख (प्रातिपदिक) + इतर (प्रातिपदिक)
• Form: तत्पुरुष-समास (सुखा च इतरा च = सुखेतरा; here as 'other than happiness' i.e., painful); स्त्रीलिङ्ग, द्वितीया-विभक्ति, एकवचन; विशेषण (गतिम्)

Speaker

Yama

Skanda Dialogue

Listener: Brahmin interlocutor (contextual; addressed as ‘brahman’)

Visual Art Cues

Scene: Yama, stern yet composed, speaks of his ceaseless duty: assigning beings their post-mortem paths according to karma, amid attendants and the imagery of scales/records.

Characters & Entities

• Yama
• Karma
• Gati (afterlife destination)

FAQs

What is the primary spiritual lesson of this shloka?

Karma determines one’s post-death course; moral causality is administered impartially through Yama’s governance.

Which specific holy site (Tirtha) is glorified here?

No single tirtha is praised in this verse; it provides the ethical framework (karma and gati) that underlies māhātmya narratives.

What ritualistic prescription is mentioned?

None explicitly; the focus is on karmic accountability rather than a named rite.