Shloka 12

Brahmacarya-Upāya: Jñāna, Śauca, and the Mind’s Role in Desire (शान्ति पर्व, अध्याय २०७)

Devanagari script

ततस्तस्मिन्‌ महाबाहो प्रादुर्भूते महात्मनि । भास्करप्रतिमं दिव्यं नाभ्यां पच्मामजायत

Transliteration

tatas tasmin mahābāho prādurbhūte mahātmani | bhāskarapratimaṃ divyaṃ nābhyāṃ padmam ajāyata ||

Translation

قال بيشما: «ثم، يا عظيمَ الساعدين، لما تجلّى ذلك العظيمُ الروح، نشأ من سُرّته لوتسٌ إلهيٌّ متلألئٌ كالشمس.»

Word by Word

• {'tatas': 'then, thereafter', 'tasmin': 'in/when that (one/event)', 'mahābāho': 'O mighty-armed one (address

• here to Yudhiṣṭhira)', 'prādurbhūte': 'having appeared, having manifested', 'mahātmani': 'in/with regard to the great-souled one', 'bhāskara': 'the sun', 'pratima': 'like, comparable to', 'bhāskarapratimam': 'sun-like, radiant as the sun', 'divyam': 'divine, celestial', 'nābhyām': 'from the navel', 'padmam': 'lotus', 'ajāyata': 'was born, arose, came into being'}

Speaker

भीष्म उवाच

Characters & Entities

• Bhīṣma
• Yudhiṣṭhira (implied by address mahābāho)
• Mahātman (the manifested great being; contextually Saṅkarṣaṇa/Viṣṇu tradition)
• Divine lotus (padma)
• Sun (bhāskara)

Educational Q&A

What is the core teaching?

The verse uses the image of a sun-bright lotus arising from the divine navel to convey sacred origin and ordered creation: the cosmos and its principles emerge from a transcendent source, inviting reverence and alignment with dharma grounded in that higher reality.

What is happening in the narrative?

Bhishma continues a cosmogonic account: after the manifestation of a great divine being, a radiant lotus appears from his navel—an emblematic step in the unfolding of creation and the appearance of further creative agencies.