Shloka 116
प्रमाणं प्राणनिलय: प्राणभृत् प्राणजीवन: । तत्त्वं तत्त्वविदेकात्मा जन्ममृत्युजरातिग:
bhīṣma uvāca | pramāṇaṁ prāṇanilayaḥ prāṇabhṛt prāṇajīvanaḥ | tattvaṁ tattvavidekātmā janmamṛtyujarātigaḥ ||
Bhishma said: He is the self-evident authority and measure of truth; the abiding ground of the vital breaths; the sustainer of all life-forces; the one who keeps beings alive through the movement of prāṇa. He is Reality itself, the knower of Reality, the one without a second, and wholly beyond the bodily conditions of birth, death, and old age.
भीष्म उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse praises the Supreme principle as self-validating truth, the foundation and sustainer of life-breath, identical with ultimate Reality, and non-dual—transcending the bodily cycle of birth, death, and aging. Ethically, it redirects attention from transient bodily states to the imperishable ground of life and knowledge.
In the Anuśāsana Parva, Bhīṣma continues his instruction by describing the divine/ultimate reality through a litany of epithets. This verse functions as a devotional-philosophical characterization of the Supreme as the support of prāṇa and as beyond mortality.