Śrī–Indra–Bali Saṃvāda: The Departure and Fourfold Placement of Lakṣmī
अविद्यां क्षेत्रमाहुरहि कर्म बीज॑ तथा कृतम् । तृष्णा संजननं स्नेह एष तेषां पुनर्भव:
avidyāṁ kṣetram āhur hi karma bījaṁ tathā kṛtam | tṛṣṇā sañjananaṁ sneha eṣa teṣāṁ punarbhavaḥ ||
Wika ni Bhīṣma: “Itinuturing nila ang kamangmangan bilang bukirin; ang mga gawang nagawa (sa mga dating buhay) ang binhi. Ang pagnanasa ang halumigmig—ang pagkakapit—na nagpapasibol sa usbong. Ganyan, sa kanilang pananaw, ang paraan ng muling pagsilang.”
भीष्म उवाच
Rebirth is explained through an agricultural metaphor: ignorance provides the ‘field’ for bondage, past actions supply the ‘seed’ of future experience, and craving/attachment acts like ‘moisture’ that makes the seed sprout again as renewed existence. Reducing ignorance and craving is implied as the ethical-spiritual remedy.
In Shanti Parva, Bhishma instructs Yudhishthira on dharma and liberation-oriented wisdom. Here he summarizes a doctrinal account of how saṁsāra continues—linking avidyā, karma, and tṛṣṇā as the causal chain behind repeated birth.