Shloka 8
अहिंसा-आत्मौपम्य-उपदेशः | Instruction on Ahiṃsā and Self-Comparison Ethics
राजेन्द्र! ज्येष्ठा नक्षत्रसे ग्रीवाकी, श्रवणसे दोनों कानोंकी, पुष्य नक्षत्रकी स्थापनासे मुखकी तथा स्वाती नक्षत्रसे दाँतों और ओठोंकी भावना बतायी जाती है ।।
bhīṣma uvāca | rājendra! jyeṣṭhā-nakṣatreṇa grīvā, śravaṇa-nakṣatreṇa ubhau karṇau, puṣya-nakṣatra-sthāpanayā mukhaṃ tathā svātī-nakṣatreṇa dantā oṣṭhāś ca bhāvyante | hāsaṃ śatabhiṣā caiva maghāṃ caivātha nāsikām | netre mṛgaśiro vidyāl lalāṭe mitram eva tu ||
Bhishma said: “O king! By the asterism Jyeṣṭhā one should conceive the neck; by Śravaṇa, the two ears; by the placing of Puṣya, the face; and by Svātī, the teeth and the lips. Know Śatabhiṣaj as the smile, Maghā as the nose, Mṛgaśiras as the eyes, and Mitra (Anurādhā) as the forehead.”
भीष्म उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse teaches a symbolic correspondence between specific nakṣatras and parts of the human face and head, presenting the body as a microcosm mapped onto the cosmic order—an instructive, ritual-cosmological way of contemplating harmony between person and universe.
Bhīṣma, instructing the king (Yudhiṣṭhira), continues a didactic exposition in which he assigns various lunar mansions to bodily features (neck, ears, face, teeth, lips, smile, nose, eyes, forehead), likely as part of a broader teaching on auspicious arrangements, ritual visualization, or cosmological symbolism.