Shloka 29

Devanagari script

अमृतं चैव मृत्युश्च द्वयं देहे प्रतेष्ठितम्‌

Transliteration

amṛtaṃ caiva mṛtyuś ca dvayaṃ dehe pratiṣṭhitam

Translation

Bhīṣma sagte: „Unsterblichkeit und Tod, beides, sind im Körper zugleich gegründet.“ Ethisch gesehen birgt das verkörperte Leben sowohl die Bedingungen der Befreiung (das „Todlose“) als auch die Unausweichlichkeit des leiblichen Sterbens; Verhalten und Einsicht entscheiden, welcher Aspekt geistlich ausschlaggebend wird.

Word by Word

• अमृतम्: immortality/nectar
• अमृतम्: Karta
• Type: Noun
• Root: अमृत
• Form: Neuter, Nominative, Singular

• च: and
• Type: Indeclinable
• Root: च

• एव: indeed/just
• Type: Indeclinable
• Root: एव

• मृत्युः: death
• मृत्युः: Karta
• Type: Noun
• Root: मृत्यु
• Form: Masculine, Nominative, Singular

• च: and
• Type: Indeclinable
• Root: च

• द्वयम्: a pair; twofold (thing)
• द्वयम्: Karta
• Type: Noun
• Root: द्वय
• Form: Neuter, Nominative, Singular

• देहे: in the body
• देहे: Adhikarana
• Type: Noun
• Root: देह
• Form: Masculine, Locative, Singular

• प्रतिष्ठितम्: is established/placed
• Type: Verb
• Root: प्रति-स्था
• Form: Past (PPP), Singular, Neuter, Nominative

Speaker

भीष्म उवाच

Characters & Entities

• Bhīṣma
• deha (the body)
• amṛta (immortality)
• mṛtyu (death)

Educational Q&A

What is the core teaching?

The body is the locus of a dual truth: it is subject to death, yet it can also be the field in which one realizes the deathless (amṛta) through right understanding and disciplined living.

What is happening in the narrative?

In Śānti Parva’s instruction section, Bhīṣma continues advising on higher dharma and inner knowledge, framing embodied existence as containing both mortality and the possibility of attaining the imperishable.