Shloka 49
अग्नीषोमोत्पत्तिः
Agni–Soma Origin and the Brahmāgnīṣomīya Doctrine
सर्वप्राणभृतां प्राणान् योडन्तकाले निरस्यति । यस्य वर्त्मनुवर्तेते मृत्युवैवस्वतावुभौ
sarvapraṇabhṛtāṃ prāṇān yo ’ntakāle nirasyati | yasya vartmānuvartete mṛtyur vaivasvato yamaḥ ||
Bhīṣma sprach: „Jener (höchste) Wind, der im letzten Augenblick die Lebenshauche aller Wesen aus dem Körper hinaustreibt—dessen Pfad nur der Tod und Yama, der Sohn Vivasvats, nachfolgen.“
भीष्म उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse presents death as governed by a higher cosmic principle: a supreme ‘Wind’ (vāyu/prāṇa-force) that expels the life-breath at the end. Even personified Death and Yama are depicted as following its course, emphasizing that mortality operates under an ordered, impersonal law rather than mere chance.
In the Śānti Parva’s instruction on adhyātma and the forces operating at death, Bhishma describes a powerful vāyu/prāṇa that removes the prāṇas from all beings at the final moment, and notes that Death and Yama proceed along the path set by that force.