Shloka 9

कालनियमः शोकशमनं च

Kāla as Regulator; Pacification of Grief

Devanagari script

दक्षिणेन च पन्थानमर्यम्णो ये दिव॑ गता: । एतान्‌ क्रियावतां लोकानुक्तवान्‌ पूर्वमप्पयहम्‌

Transliteration

vaiśampāyana uvāca |

dakṣiṇena ca panthānam aryamṇo ye divaṃ gatāḥ |

etān kriyāvatāṃ lokān uktavān pūrvam apy aham |

“dhanaṃjaya! dāna, adhyayana, yajña aura nigraha—ye sabhī karma bahuta kaṭhina haiṃ | ina vedokta karmoṃ kā (sakāmabhāvase) āśraya lekar log sūryake dakṣiṇa mārgase svargameṃ jāte haiṃ | in karmamārgī puruṣoṃke lokoṃkī carcā maiṃ pahale bhī kara cukā hūṃ”

Translation

毗湿摩波耶那说道：“凡循阿利耶曼（Aryaman）的南道而升天者——那便是专志于仪式行为之人所获得的诸世界。我先前已说过这些世界。”

Word by Word

• {'vaiśampāyana uvāca': 'Vaiśampāyana said', 'dakṣiṇena panthānam': 'by the southern path/route', 'aryamṇaḥ': 'of Aryaman (a Vedic Āditya associated with the path/ancestral order)', 'divam gatāḥ': 'gone to heaven', 'kriyāvatām': 'of those engaged in prescribed rites/actions', 'lokān': 'worlds/realms (states of post-mortem attainment)', 'pūrvam api': 'even earlier/before', 'dhanaṃjaya': 'O Dhanañjaya (Arjuna)', 'dāna': 'charitable giving', 'adhyayana': 'study/recitation of the Veda', 'yajña': 'sacrifice/ritual offering', 'nigraha': 'restraint, self-control (sense-control/discipline)', 'vedokta karma': 'acts enjoined by the Veda', 'sakāma-bhāva': 'with desire for results (fruit-motivated attitude)', 'sūryasya dakṣiṇa-mārga': 'the sun’s southern course (symbolic route linked with ritual merit and finite heavenly reward)', 'svarga': 'heavenly enjoyment realm'}

Speaker

वैशम्पायन उवाच

Characters & Entities

• Vaiśampāyana
• Dhanañjaya (Arjuna)
• Aryaman
• Sūrya (the Sun)
• Svarga

Educational Q&A

What is the core teaching?

Fruit-motivated reliance on Veda-enjoined disciplines—charity, Vedic study, sacrifice, and self-restraint—can lead to heavenly realms via the ‘southern path’; yet these attainments are framed as outcomes of karma (ritual merit) rather than the highest, final goal.

What is happening in the narrative?

Vaiśampāyana continues an explanatory discourse to Arjuna (Dhanañjaya), summarizing how ritual practitioners attain specific post-mortem worlds, and notes that he has already described these ‘worlds of the action-oriented’ earlier.