Shloka 52
अग्नीषोमोत्पत्तिः
Agni–Soma Origin and the Brahmāgnīṣomīya Doctrine
येन स्पृष्ट: पराभूतो यात्येव न निवर्तते । परावहो नाम परो वायु: स दुरतिक्रम:
yena spṛṣṭaḥ parābhūto yāty eva na nivartate | parāvaho nāma paro vāyuḥ sa duratikramaḥ ||
Bhīṣma sprach: „Wen seine Berührung völlig überwältigt, der scheidet von hier und kehrt nicht zurück—dieser höchste Wind heißt Parāvaha. Ihn zu überschreiten ist für jeden überaus schwer.“
भीष्म उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse underscores the inevitability and irreversibility of death: when the supreme life-wind associated with final departure (‘Parāvaha’) touches a being, the embodied life leaves and does not return. It frames death as a force that is extremely difficult to overcome, encouraging sober spiritual reflection.
In Bhishma’s instruction in the Shanti Parva, he is describing a particular ‘supreme wind’ (vāyu) named Parāvaha, characterized as the power that carries the being away at the end of life, after which there is no return to the same embodied state.