Shloka 20
Svargārohaṇa-parva Adhyāya 5 — Karmaphala-Nirdeśa and Phalāśruti (कर्मफलनिर्देशः फलश्रुतिश्च)
विवेश सोम॑ धर्मात्मा कर्मणो<न्ते महारथ: । चन्द्रमाके महातेजस्वी और प्रतापी पुत्र जो वर्चा हैं
āviveśa raviṁ karṇo nihataḥ puruṣarṣabhaḥ |
वैशम्पायन उवाच—कर्णः पुरुषर्षभः निहतः सन् रविम् आविवेश। एवं तस्य निधनं न केवलं पराजयः, अपि तु स्वस्य ब्रह्माण्डीय-आश्रयस्य प्रति प्रत्यावर्तनम् इव; शौर्य-धर्म-युद्धकर्मफलैः नियतस्य मार्गस्य परिसमाप्तिं सूचयति।
वैशम्पायन उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse presents death as a return to one’s cosmic origin: Karṇa, born of the Sun, is said to merge into the Sun after being slain. It underscores how heroic lives in the Mahābhārata are interpreted within a moral-cosmic framework where deeds culminate in an ordained completion rather than random annihilation.
Vaiśampāyana narrates the post-war accounting of major heroes’ ends. Here he states that Karṇa, once killed, ‘entered the Sun,’ a poetic-theological way of describing his departure from the world and his reunion with his divine source (Ravi).