Śivasaṃhitā 2.44

The karmic mechanism is stated with precision: karmabalāt («by the force of karma») acts as the engine generating the experiential duality of sukha (pleasure) and duḥkha (suffering). Puṃsaḥ points to the embodied being as the experiencing subject, caught in oscillation between these two poles without understanding their source.

Karman (action, accumulated consequence) derives from root kṛ (to do, make). Bala means force, strength, or vigor, so karmabalāt evokes an almost physical momentum driving experience. Sukha (literally «good axle-hole», from su + kha) and duḥkha («bad axle-hole», duḥ + kha) share an etymology evoking the smooth or obstructed turning of a wheel.

This verse belongs to a chain of reasoning about illusion (bhrāma) developed throughout the chapter. Suffering is not arbitrary, nor is pleasure a direct divine reward: both are mechanical consequences of accumulated karma. Recognizing this dynamic is the yogin’s first step toward disidentification from the fluctuations of sensory experience.