Shloka 2

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

Devanagari script

काश्यप उवाच कथं शरीरं च्यवते कथं चैवोपपद्मते । कथं कष्टाच्च संसारात्‌ संसरन्‌ परिमुच्यते,काश्यपने पूछा--महात्मन्‌! यह शरीर किस प्रकार गिर जाता है? फिर दूसरा शरीर कैसे प्राप्त होता है? संसारी जीव किस तरह इस दुःखमय संसारसे मुक्त होता है?

Transliteration

kāśyapa uvāca: kathaṃ śarīraṃ cyavate kathaṃ caivopapadyate | kathaṃ kaṣṭācca saṃsārāt saṃsaran parimucyate ||

Translation

కాశ్యపుడు అడిగెను—మహాత్మా! ఈ శరీరం ఎలా విడిచిపోతుంది? తరువాత మరొక శరీరం ఎలా లభిస్తుంది? మరియు ఈ దుఃఖమయ సంసారచక్రంలో సంచరించే దేహి దానినుండి సంపూర్ణంగా ఎలా విముక్తి పొందుతాడు?

Word by Word

काश्यपःKāśyapa

उवाचsaid

कथम्how?

शरीरम्the body

च्यवतेfalls away / departs

कथम्how?

चand

एवindeed / just

उपपद्यतेis obtained / comes to be (is born)

कथम्how?

कष्टात्from suffering / hardship

चand

संसारात्from saṃsāra (cycle of rebirth)

संसरण्wandering / transmigrating

परिमुच्यतेis completely freed / is released

Speaker

काश्यप उवाच

Characters & Entities

Kāśyapa

Character Dynamics

Dharma Sankata (Moral Dilemma)

Verse Rasa (Emotional Essence)

Philosophical Teaching

Political Layer

Geographic Context

Meter (Chandas)

Sandhi Notes

Educational Q&A

What is the core teaching?

The verse frames the central philosophical problem of saṃsāra: the mechanism of death (the body’s falling away), rebirth (attaining another body), and the means of final release (mokṣa). It signals an inquiry into karma-driven transmigration and the liberating knowledge or discipline that ends suffering.

What is happening in the narrative?

Kāśyapa, as the speaker, poses a set of probing questions to a revered interlocutor (addressed as “mahātman” in the accompanying sense): he asks how death occurs, how rebirth follows, and how a wandering being can be freed from the painful cycle of worldly existence—setting up a doctrinal explanation in the subsequent passage.