Shloka 30
अव्यक्त–प्रकृति–इन्द्रियविचारः
The Unmanifest, Prakṛtis, and the Sense-Complex
स्वयंकृतानि कर्माणि जातो जन्तु: प्रपद्यते । नाकृत्वा लभते कश्ित् किंचिदत्र प्रियाप्रियम्
svayaṃkṛtāni karmāṇi jāto jantuḥ prapadyate | nākṛtvā labhate kaścit kiṃcid atra priyāpriyam ||
स्वयंकृतानि कर्माणि जातो जन्तुः प्रपद्यते । नाकृत्वा लभते कश्चित् किञ्चिदत्र प्रियाप्रियम् ॥
पराशर उवाच
Educational Q&A
That pleasure and pain arise from one’s own past actions (karma-phala). No one receives desirable or undesirable outcomes without having performed the causal deeds; this affirms ethical responsibility and the law of moral causation across births.
Parāśara is instructing his listener within the Śānti Parva’s didactic setting, emphasizing why beings experience varied fortunes: they are encountering the ripened results of their own previously performed actions, not arbitrary reward or punishment.