Adhyaya 10 — Jaimini’s Questions on Birth, Death, Karma, and the Embodied Journey
पदे पदे च पादो 'स्य शीर्यते जीर्यते पुनः ।
अहोरात्रेणोद्धरणं पादन्यासं च गच्छति ॥
pade pade ca pādo 'sya śīryate jīryate punaḥ | ahorātreṇoddharaṇaṃ pādanyāsaṃ ca gacchati ||
पदे पदे तस्य पादः भिद्यते, पुनः पुनः च क्षीयते। अहोरात्रपर्यन्ते स एकस्यैव पदस्योत्क्षेपणनिक्षेपणमात्रं करोति।
{ "primaryRasa": "bhayanaka", "secondaryRasa": "karuna", "rasaIntensity": 0, "emotionalArcPosition": "", "moodDescriptors": [] }
Sin slows the soul’s progress: the image of one step per day dramatizes how adharma creates long, grinding obstruction and exhaustion.
Ethical instruction (dharma/karma-phala) presented through naraka narrative; not directly sarga/pratisarga/vaṃśa/manvantara/vaṃśānucarita, though it supports vaṃśānucarita-style didacticism.
The ‘decaying foot’ symbolizes unstable resolve (saṅkalpa) and the collapse of support (pāda = foundation). Spiritual progress becomes painfully incremental when one’s base is compromised.