Shloka 56
रामो विरामो विरजो मार्गो नेयो नयोडनय: । वीर: शक्तिमतां श्रेष्ठो धर्मो धर्मविदुत्तम:
rāmo virāmo virajo mārgo neyo nayo 'nayaḥ | vīraḥ śaktimatāṃ śreṣṭho dharmo dharmaviduttamaḥ ||
Bhīṣma said: He is Rāma—the delight of the yogins; Virāma—the one in whom beings come to rest at dissolution; Viraja—utterly free from rajas and tamas; Mārga—the very means by which seekers attain the deathless; Neya—knowable through the highest knowledge; Naya—the regulator who keeps all within right order; Anaya—independent and unruled by any other; Vīra—valiant in power; Śaktimatāṃ Śreṣṭha—the foremost even among the mighty; Dharma—Dharma itself; and Dharmavid-uttama—the best among all knowers of dharma.
भीष्म उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse praises the Supreme as the source and standard of dharma: independent, stainless beyond the guṇas, the regulator of cosmic and moral order, and the very path by which liberation is attained. Ethical life (dharma) is grounded in aligning oneself with that highest order.
Bhīṣma, in his instruction during the Anuśāsana Parva, recites a sequence of divine names/epithets (in the style of the Viṣṇu-sahasranāma tradition), explaining the Lord’s qualities—cosmic (pralaya, guṇas) and ethical (dharma, guidance)—to teach Yudhiṣṭhira about righteousness and ultimate refuge.