Shloka 13

Gopradāna-phalasaṃprāpti: Nāciketa’s Vision of Vaivasvata’s Realms (गोप्रदानफलसम्प्राप्तिः — नाचिकेतोपाख्यानम्)

Devanagari script

अन्नौषध्यो महाराज वीरुधश्चव॒ जलोदभवा: । यतः प्राणभृतां प्राणा: सम्भवन्ति विशाम्पते

Transliteration

annauṣadhyo mahārāja vīrudhaś ca jalodbhavāḥ | yataḥ prāṇabhṛtāṃ prāṇāḥ sambhavanti viśāmpate ||

Translation

Bhishma sprach: „O großer König, Speise und Heilkräuter, ebenso Gräser und Ranken, entstehen aus Wasser; denn aus ihnen geht der Lebenshauch der Lebewesen hervor und wird erhalten, o Herr des Volkes. Wahrlich, auch Soma — Herr unter den himmlischen Mächten — offenbarte sich aus Wasser. Amṛta, sudhā, die Opferworte ‘svāhā’ und ‘svadhā’, ebenso Speise, Kräuter, Gras und Weinranken, sind aus Wasser geboren; durch sie entsteht und wird das Leben aller Geschöpfe genährt.“

Word by Word

• {'anna': 'food, grain

• sustenance', 'auṣadhi': 'medicinal herb

• healing plant', 'vīrudh': 'plant, herb, grass (esp. non-woody vegetation)', 'jalodbhava': 'born from water

• arising out of water', 'yataḥ': 'from which

• because of which', 'prāṇabhṛt': 'living being

• one who bears life (lit. ‘life-supported’)', 'prāṇa': 'life-breath

• vital force', 'sambhavanti': 'come into being

• are produced', 'viśāmpati': 'lord of the people

• king (address to Yudhiṣṭhira)', 'mahārāja': 'great king', 'soma': 'Soma (deity/moon

• also the sacred Soma-essence)', 'amṛta': 'immortality-giving nectar

• ambrosia', 'sudhā': 'nectar

• ambrosial essence', 'svāhā': 'ritual exclamation for offerings to the gods', 'svadhā': 'ritual exclamation/oblation associated with Pitṛs (ancestors)'}

Speaker

भीष्म उवाच

Characters & Entities

• Bhīṣma
• Yudhiṣṭhira (implied by addresses mahārāja/viśāmpati/prajānātha)
• Soma
• Water (jala)
• Amṛta
• Sudhā
• Svāhā
• Svadhā
• Food (anna)
• Medicinal herbs (auṣadhi)
• Grasses/plants (vīrudh)

Educational Q&A

What is the core teaching?

Water is presented as the fundamental source of nourishment and vitality: from water arise food and medicinal plants, which in turn sustain the prāṇa (life-force) of all beings. The verse also links water to sacred and ritual realities (Soma, amṛta, svāhā, svadhā), implying an ethical duty to honor, protect, and rightly use water as a dharmic resource.

What is happening in the narrative?

In Anuśāsana Parva, Bhīṣma instructs King Yudhiṣṭhira on dharma and right conduct. Here he emphasizes the cosmic and practical importance of water, describing it as the origin of vegetation, food, medicines, and even sacred substances and ritual formulas—thereby grounding moral instruction in the life-sustaining order of the world.