Shloka 119
आत्मयोनि: स्वयंजातो वैखान: सामगायन: । देवकीनन्दन: स्रष्टा क्षितीश: पापनाशन:
ātmayoniḥ svayaṃjāto vaikhānaḥ sāmagāyanaḥ | devakīnandanaḥ sraṣṭā kṣitīśaḥ pāpanāśanaḥ ||
Bhīṣma said: He is self-caused and self-manifest; the Vaikhāna—the Boar-incarnation who dug up the earth to slay Hiraṇyākṣa; the chanter of Sāman hymns; the beloved son of Devakī; the Creator; the Lord of the earth; the Destroyer of sin. By remembering, praising, worshipping, and meditating upon him, the accumulated mass of wrongdoing is brought to an end—thus Bhīṣma extols the Divine as the refuge of dharma and the purifier of those who seek the righteous path.
भीष्म उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse teaches that the divine—self-existent, creator, and sovereign—also functions as a moral purifier: sincere remembrance, praise, worship, and meditation eradicate accumulated sin and reorient a person toward dharma.
In Anuśāsana Parva, Bhīṣma instructs Yudhiṣṭhira on dharma and supports his teaching with devotional praise. Here he strings together epithets of the supreme deity (identified with Kṛṣṇa and also with cosmic/avatāra forms like Varāha) to emphasize divine power, protection, and the capacity to cleanse wrongdoing.