Shloka 4
Skanda-janma: Śivā/Svāhā, Agni, and the Manifestation of Guha
Mahābhārata 3.214
भूतं भव्यं भविष्यं च सर्व प्राणे प्रतिष्ठितम् । श्रेष्ठ तदेव भूतानां ब्रह्मयोनिमुपास्महे,भूत, वर्तमान और भविष्य--सब कुछ प्राणके ही आश्रित है, वह प्राण ही समस्त भूतोंमें श्रेष्ठ है।। अतः परब्रह्मसे उत्पन्न होनेवाले प्राणकी हम सब उपासना करते हैं;
bhūtaṁ bhavyaṁ bhaviṣyaṁ ca sarvaṁ prāṇe pratiṣṭhitam | śreṣṭha tadeva bhūtānāṁ brahmayonim upāsmahe ||
الماضي والحاضر والمستقبل—كل ذلك قائم على البرانا، نفَس الحياة. وتلك البرانا هي الأسمى بين جميع الكائنات؛ لذلك نعبد البرانا المنبثقة من البراهمان الأعلى، بوصفها المصدر الذي يسند الحياة ويقيم النظام.
व्याध उवाच
Educational Q&A
All temporal experience—past, present, and future—depends on prāṇa, the life-sustaining principle. Recognizing prāṇa as the highest support of embodied existence, the speaker directs reverence toward prāṇa as rooted in Brahman, linking everyday life to a supreme metaphysical source.
In the Vana Parva’s dialogue where the hunter (vyādha) instructs a seeker in dharma, he emphasizes a foundational principle: life and all activity are sustained by prāṇa. He frames this as an object of reverence, grounding ethical and spiritual life in awareness of the life-breath’s divine origin.