Shloka 18

Dehānta (Cyavana) and Upapatti: Kāśyapa’s Questions and the Siddha’s Account of Death, Pain, and Karmic Re-embodiment

Devanagari script

वेदनाभि: परीतात्मा तद्‌ विद्धि द्विजसत्तम । जातीमरणसंविग्ना: सततं सर्वजन्तवः,द्विजश्रेष्ठ! मृत्युकालमें जीवका तन-मन वेदनासे व्यथित होता है, इस बातको भलीभाँति जान लो। इस तरह संसारके सभी प्राणी सदा जन्म और मरणसे उद्दिग्न रहते हैं

Transliteration

vedanābhiḥ parītātmā tad viddhi dvijasattama | jātimaraṇasaṃvignāḥ satataṃ sarvajantavaḥ ||

Translation

सिद्ध उवाच—वेदनाभिः परीतात्मा तद्विद्धि द्विजसत्तम। मृत्युकाले हि देहस्थो देहमानसपीडितः। एवं सर्वे जन्तवो लोके जातीमरणसंविग्नाः सततं द्विजश्रेष्ठ॥

Word by Word

वेदनाभिःby/with pains, by sufferings

परीतात्माwhose self is enveloped/overcome (by them)

तत्that (fact)

विद्धिknow (you)! / understand!

द्विजसत्तमO best of the twice-born

जाति-मरण-संविग्नाःdistressed by birth and death

सततम्always, continually

सर्वजन्तवःall creatures

Speaker

सिद्ध उवाच

Characters & Entities

Siddha

dvijasattama (addressed Brahmin interlocutor)

sarvajantavaḥ (all living beings)

Character Dynamics

Dharma Sankata (Moral Dilemma)

Verse Rasa (Emotional Essence)

Philosophical Teaching

Political Layer

Meter (Chandas)

Sandhi Notes

Educational Q&A

What is the core teaching?

That embodied life is pervaded by suffering and anxiety centered on the cycle of birth and death; recognizing this is meant to awaken dispassion (vairāgya) and a search for liberation-oriented dharma.

What is happening in the narrative?

A Siddha instructs a learned interlocutor (addressed as ‘best of the twice-born’) about the universal condition of beings: at death the person is overwhelmed by pain, and therefore creatures remain constantly troubled by the inevitability of birth and death.