Mahabharata — Svargarohana Parva, 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 |
Sinabi ni Vaiśampāyana: Si Karṇa—ang toro sa hanay ng mga tao—nang mapatay, ay pumasok sa Araw. Kaya’t inilalarawan ng epiko ang kanyang kamatayan hindi bilang karaniwang pagkatalo, kundi bilang pagbabalik sa kanyang kosmikong pinagmulan, na nagpapahiwatig ng pagwawakas ng isang itinadhanang landas na hinubog ng tapang, tungkulin, at mga bunga ng digmaan sa larangan ng dharma.
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).