Shloka 7

अध्याय २५६ — श्रद्धा, अहिंसा, स्पर्धा-त्यागः

Tūlādhāra–Jājali: Faith, Non-harm, and Renunciation of Rivalry

Devanagari script

पल्वलानि च सर्वाणि सर्व चैव तृणोपलम्‌ । स्थावरं जड़म॑ चैव भूतग्रामं चतुर्विधम्‌

Transliteration

palvalāni ca sarvāṇi sarvaṃ caiva tṛṇopalām | sthāvaraṃ jaḍaṃ caiva bhūtagrāmaṃ caturvidham ||

Translation

قال نارادا: «إنّ جميع الغدران والبرك، بل كلَّ الأعشاب والمتسلّقات وما شاكلها؛ والعالمَ الثابتَ الجامدَ الذي لا إحساس له، وكذلك جماعةَ الأحياء ذات الأقسام الأربعة—كلُّ ذلك يُختزل رمادًا. لقد حضر انحلالُ العالم. يا مبارك، تفضّل بالرحمة. يا قدّيس، هذه هي النعمة التي أطلبها منك.»

Word by Word

• [{'term': 'palvala', 'meaning': 'pond, pool, small lake

• a water-reservoir'}, {'term': 'sarvāṇi / sarvam', 'meaning': 'all, everything'}, {'term': 'tṛṇa', 'meaning': 'grass, straw'}, {'term': 'upala', 'meaning': 'stone, pebble

• (by extension) inert matter'}, {'term': 'sthāvara', 'meaning': 'immovable beings/things

• the stationary creation (plants, mountains, etc.)'}, {'term': 'jaḍa', 'meaning': 'inert, insentient, non-conscious'}, {'term': 'bhūtagrāma', 'meaning': 'the aggregate/community of beings

• the totality of creatures'}, {'term': 'caturvidha', 'meaning': 'fourfold

• of four kinds'}, {'term': 'pralaya', 'meaning': 'cosmic dissolution

• the collapse of the manifested world-order'}, {'term': 'vara', 'meaning': 'boon, requested gift (often from an ascetic or deity)'}]

Speaker

नारद उवाच

Characters & Entities

• Nārada
• Bhagavān (addressed deity/sage)
• palvala (ponds/pools)
• tṛṇa (grasses)
• latā-vallī (creepers/vines, implied by context)
• bhūtagrāma (community of beings)
• caturvidha-jīva (fourfold living beings: svedaja, aṇḍaja, udbhijja, jarāyuja—per Gita Press gloss)

Educational Q&A

What is the core teaching?

The verse underscores impermanence: even the entire created order—water-bodies, vegetation, inert matter, and all classes of living beings—can be consumed in dissolution. Ethically, it pushes the listener toward detachment from transient forms and toward seeking refuge/boons from the truly enduring (dharma, tapas, the divine).

What is happening in the narrative?

Nārada describes a scene of cosmic destruction where all elements of the world are being burned to ashes, indicating that pralaya has arrived. In that crisis, he addresses a revered ‘Bhagavān’/holy one and states the boon he wishes to request, framing the moment as a solemn petition amid dissolution.