Shloka 22
अध्याय १६ — शङ्कर-उमा-वरदानम् तथा तण्डि-स्तुतिः (Śaṅkara–Umā Boon-Granting and Taṇḍi’s Hymn)
ब्रह्मा भवश्व विष्णुश्न स्कन्देन्द्री सविता यम: । वरुणेन्दू मनुर्धाता विधाता त्वं धनेश्वर:,ब्रह्मा, विष्णु, शिव, स्कन्द, इन्द्र, सूर्य, यम, वरुण, चन्द्रमा, मनु, धाता, विधाता और धनाध्यक्ष कुबेर भी आप ही हैं
brahmā bhavaś ca viṣṇuś ca skanda indraḥ savitā yamaḥ | varuṇa induḥ manuḥ dhātā vidhātā tvaṃ dhaneśvaraḥ ||
Vāyu said: “You are Brahmā, Bhava (Śiva), and Viṣṇu; you are Skanda, Indra, the Sun (Savitṛ), and Yama. You are Varuṇa, the Moon, Manu, Dhātā and Vidhātā; and you are also Kubera, the Lord of wealth.”
वायुदेव उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse teaches a unitive vision: the one being addressed is identified with many deities and their functions. Ethically, it encourages humility and devotion by recognizing that all powers—creation, governance, justice, and prosperity—ultimately rest in a single supreme reality.
Vāyu is offering a hymn of praise (stuti), listing major gods and cosmic administrators and declaring them to be forms or aspects of the one addressed. This is a rhetorical device to express supremacy and all-pervasiveness.