Shloka 10
शोक-शमन उपदेशः
Instruction on the Pacification of Grief
वैचित्रवीर्य प्राप्पं हि दुः:खं वा यदि वा सुखम् । प्राप्रुवन्तीह भूतानि स्वकृतेनैव कर्मणा,विचित्रवीर्यनन्दन! यदि दुःख या सुख प्राप्त होनेवाला है तो प्राणी उसे अपने किये हुए कर्मके अनुसार ही पाते हैं
Vaicitravīrya-prāptaṃ hi duḥkhaṃ vā yadi vā sukham | prāpnuvantīha bhūtāni svakṛtenaiva karmaṇā, Vicitravīrya-nandana ||
वैचित्रवीर्यनन्दन! दुःखं वा यदि वा सुखं यत् प्राप्यते, तत् प्राणी लोके स्वकृतेनैव कर्मणा प्राप्नुवन्ति; न कुलात् न च दैवात् केवलात्।
विदुर उवाच
Educational Q&A
Vidura teaches that pleasure and pain are experienced according to one’s own karma (svakṛta-karma). Even if outcomes are spoken of as ‘coming from lineage’ or ‘fate,’ the ethical principle asserted is personal moral causality: beings reap results shaped by their own actions.
In the Strī Parva’s lament-filled aftermath of the Kurukṣetra war, Vidura addresses a Kuru elder/descendant of Vicitravīrya, offering counsel meant to steady the mind amid grief by pointing to the law of karma as the underlying explanation for experienced sorrow and happiness.