Shloka 34
Jvarotpatti — The Origin and Distribution of Jvara
Fever
जैसे इस जगत्में घट आदि कोई वस्तु उत्पन्न होती और फिर नष्ट हो जाती है, उसी प्रकार प्रारब्ध, पुण्य और पापका क्षय होनेपर शरीर पज्चत्वको प्राप्त हो जाता है तथा संचित पुण्य और पापसे प्रेरित हो जीव समयानुसार कर्मजनित दूसरे शरीरमें प्रवेश करता है ।।
yathā asmin jagati ghaṭādayaḥ kaścid vastur utpadyate punaś ca vinaśyati, tathā prārabdha-puṇya-pāpa-kṣaye śarīraṃ pañcatvaṃ prāpnoti; sañcita-puṇya-pāpa-preritātmā jīvaḥ kālena yathāyogaṃ karma-janitaṃ dvitīyaṃ śarīram anupraviśati. hित्वा hित्वा hāyaṃ praiti dehād dehaṃ kṛtāśrayaḥ; kāla-saṃcoditaḥ kṣetrī viśīrṇād vā gṛhād gṛham. yathā gṛhe nivasan puruṣaḥ ekasya gṛhasya patane dvitīyaṃ, dvitīyasya patane tṛtīyaṃ ca gacchati, tathā kāla-preritā jīvaḥ krameṇa dehaṃ dehaṃ parityajya pūrva-saṅkalpa-nirmitaṃ nānā-dehaṃ prāpnoti.
譬如此世之中，瓶等诸物生而复灭；同样，当已发动之业力（prārabdha）与福罪之积藏耗尽之时，此身便归于“五大”之境。为所积福罪所驱，生灵随时而行，并在“时”（Time）的催迫下，进入由其行为所生的另一具身体。于是它一次又一次有所依止，从身至身而去——如居者一宅倾圮，迁入他宅；彼宅复坏，又入第三宅。亦复如是，受“时”所促，具身之“知田者”（kṣetrajña）舍此身而就彼身，抵达由先前意向与往昔业行所塑成的种种身相。
असित उवाच
Educational Q&A
The body is impermanent and dissolves into the elements when operative karma is exhausted, but the jīva continues, propelled by accumulated merit and sin and by Time, taking up new bodies shaped by past intention and action. Ethical conduct matters because it conditions future embodiment and experience.
Asita is instructing the listener in Shanti Parva on the mechanism of death and rebirth. He uses everyday analogies—a pot that breaks and a person moving from one collapsing house to another—to explain transmigration from body to body under the governance of karma and Time.