Shloka 23
अध्याय १६ — शङ्कर-उमा-वरदानम् तथा तण्डि-स्तुतिः (Śaṅkara–Umā Boon-Granting and Taṇḍi’s Hymn)
त्वं वै स्वर्गश्न मोक्षक्ष॒ काम: क्रोधस्त्वमेव च । सत्त्वं रजस्तमश्नैव अधश्चोर्थ्व त्वमेव हि,भूर्वायु: सलिलान्निश्च खं बाग्बुद्धि: स्थितिर्मति: । कर्म सत्यानृते चोभे त्वमेवास्ति च नास्ति च पृथ्वी, वायु, जल, अग्नि, आकाश, वाणी, बुद्धि, स्थिति, मति, कर्म, सत्य, असत्य तथा अस्ति और नास्ति भी आप ही हैं
tvaṃ vai svargaś ca mokṣaś ca kāmaḥ krodhas tvam eva ca | sattvaṃ rajas tamaś caiva adhaś cordhvaṃ tvam eva hi | bhūr vāyuḥ salilam agniś ca khaṃ vāk-buddhiḥ sthitir matiḥ | karma satyānṛte cobhe tvam evāsti ca nāsti ca ||
Vāyu-deva said: “You alone are heaven and you alone are liberation; you are desire and you are anger as well. You are the three guṇas—sattva, rajas, and tamas—and you are both the higher and the lower states of existence. You are earth, wind, water, fire, and space; you are speech and intellect, steadiness and understanding. You are action, and you are both truth and untruth; indeed, you are what is, and you are what is not.”
वायुदेव उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse presents an all-encompassing vision of the Supreme principle: it is the source and substance of opposites—heaven and liberation, desire and anger, truth and untruth, being and non-being—as well as the guṇas and the elements. Ethically, it redirects the listener from ego-centered judgment to self-mastery and dharmic living grounded in a larger unity.
Vāyu-deva speaks in a didactic context within the Anuśāsana Parva, offering a theological-philosophical declaration that the divine reality pervades all constituents of the cosmos and the inner faculties. The speech functions as instruction meant to elevate understanding and guide conduct.