Anushasana Parva Adhyaya 155 Shloka 60 - Mahabharata | English | Vedapath

Vyasa

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Shloka 60

Devanagari script

अनिर्विण्ण: स्थविष्ठो5 भूर्धर्मयूपो महामख: । नक्षत्रनेमिर्नक्षत्री क्षम: क्षाम: समीहन:

Transliteration

bhīṣma uvāca | anirviṇṇaḥ sthaviṣṭho 'bhūd dharmayūpo mahāmakhaḥ | nakṣatranemir nakṣatrī kṣamaḥ kṣāmaḥ samīhanaḥ ||

Translation

Bhīṣma said: He is free from despondency and change, established in the vast cosmic form; unborn, the very pillar of dharma and the embodiment of the great sacrifice. He is the hub around which the constellations turn, the lord of the stars (the Moon), fully capable in all undertakings, the abiding ground in which the worlds rest, and the one who actively wills and strives for creation and the ordering of existence.

Word by Word

अनिर्विण्णःunwearied, undepressed

स्थविष्ठःvery great, most massive

अभूत्was / became

धर्मयूपःthe sacrificial post of dharma

महामखःthe great sacrifice

नक्षत्रनेमिःthe hub/rim of the stars (pivot of the constellations)

नक्षत्रीlord of the stars (moon)

क्षमःcapable, competent

क्षामःabode/support (as interpreted in this context)

समीहनःone who strives well; diligent in endeavor

Speaker

भीष्म उवाच

Characters & Entities

Bhishma (speaker)

Supreme Lord (Vishnu/Narayana as the hymn’s referent)

Nakṣatras (constellations)

Candra (Moon, implied by nakṣatrī)

Yūpa (sacrificial post)

Makha/Yajña (sacrifice)

Character Dynamics

Dharma Sankata (Moral Dilemma)

Verse Rasa (Emotional Essence)

Philosophical Teaching

Political Layer

Geographic Context

Meter (Chandas)

Sandhi Notes

Educational Q&A

What is the core teaching?

The Supreme is presented as the unchanging foundation of dharma and the sustaining center of cosmic order: sacrifice, moral law, and the movements of the heavens are not separate from Him but expressions of His being and governance.

What is happening in the narrative?

In Anushasana Parva, Bhishma instructs Yudhishthira and, in a devotional-hymnic mode, enumerates divine epithets describing the Lord’s nature—unborn, vast, the support of righteousness, and the cosmic regulator—linking ethical life (dharma and yajña) with the Lord’s universal sovereignty.