Shloka 16
Varṇa-lakṣaṇa and Ātma-saṃyama (Marks of Social Conduct and Self-Restraint) | वर्णलक्षणम् एवं आत्मसंयमः
कोई बालक हो, तरुण हो या बूढ़ा हो, वह जो भी शुभाशुभ कर्म करता है, दूसरे जन्ममें उसी-उसी अवस्थामें उस-उस कर्मका फल उसे प्राप्त होता है ।।
yathā dhenusahasreṣu vatso vindati mātaram | tathā pūrvakṛtaṃ karma kartāram anugacchati ||
Wika ni Bhishma: Gaya ng guya, kahit nasa gitna ng sanlibong baka, natatagpuan at nararating pa rin ng guya ang sarili nitong ina; gayon din, ang dating nagawang karma ay tiyak na sumusunod sa gumawa nito. Maging sa pagkabata, sa kabataan, o sa katandaan man kumilos ang tao—mabuti man o masama—ang bunga ng mga gawaing iyon ay siya ring makatatagpo sa susunod na kapanganakan, sa kalagayang tumutugma; walang gawa ang nawawala, at walang ibang makatatanggap ng bunga nito kapalit niya.
भीष्म उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse teaches the inevitability of karmic consequence: actions—good or bad—remain linked to their agent and will mature into results that the same person must experience, even across rebirths. Karma is portrayed as precise and inescapable, like a calf unerringly finding its own mother.
In the Shanti Parva’s instruction on dharma and right conduct, Bhishma is advising Yudhishthira about moral causality. He uses a vivid pastoral analogy—calf and mother-cow—to explain that deeds do not vanish and do not transfer to others; they return to the doer at the appropriate time and condition.