Adhyaya 15 — Karmic Retribution: Rebirths After Naraka and the King’s Compassion in Hell
कृमिः कीटः पतङ्गोऽथ पक्षी तोयचरो मृगः । गोत्वं प्राप्य च चण्डालपुक्कसादि जुगुप्सितम् ॥
kṛmiḥ kīṭaḥ pataṅgo 'tha pakṣī toya-caro mṛgaḥ / gotvaṃ prāpya ca caṇḍāla-pukkasādi jugupsitam
وہ پہلے کیڑا، پھر حشرہ، پھر پتنگا بنتا ہے؛ پھر پرندہ، آبی جاندار اور چوپایا ہوتا ہے۔ گائے کی یونی پانے کے بعد آخرکار چانڈال اور پُکّس وغیرہ جیسے مذموم گروہوں میں جنم لیتا ہے۔
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The passage presents a deterrent ethic: stealing highly protected goods (especially cow and gold) is portrayed as producing severe karmic repercussion—progressive degradation into lower births and socially stigmatized conditions.
Primarily Dharma/Ācāra instruction (not one of the five in a strict sense). Indirectly it relates to Manvantara-style moral governance (how beings should act within cosmic order), but it is not a sarga/pratisarga genealogy unit here.
The sequence of births can be read as a symbolic ‘descent of consciousness’ through increasingly constrained embodiments, illustrating how adharmic appropriation (taking what is not given) contracts one’s freedom and dignity across lifetimes.