Shloka 13
त्याज्यं त्यक्त्वा चासुराणां वधाय कार्याकार्ये कारणं चैव पार्थ | कृतं करिष्यत् क्रियते च देवो राहुं सोम॑ विद्धि च शक्रमेनम्
tyājyaṃ tyaktvā cāsurāṇāṃ vadhāya kāryākārye kāraṇaṃ caiva pārtha | kṛtaṃ kariṣyat kriyate ca devo rāhuṃ somaṃ viddhi ca śakram enam, kuntīnandana! |
Bhishma said: “O Partha, there is One who, having cast away what must be renounced, becomes Himself the very cause for the destruction of the asuras. He is the essence of what ought to be done and what ought not to be done, and He is also the cause behind both. That divine Lord is the very form of action—what has been done, what will be done, and what is being done. O son of Kunti, know Him as Rahu, as Soma (the Moon), and as Shakra (Indra).”
भीष्म उवाच
Educational Q&A
Bhishma presents the Lord as the ultimate ground of moral discernment and causality: He is the basis of what should be done and avoided, and the causal power by which even world-protecting violence (the destruction of asuras) occurs. The verse frames ethical action within a theistic-cosmic order, where duty and its consequences are ultimately rooted in the divine.
In Anushasana Parva, Bhishma instructs Arjuna on dharma and the supremacy of the divine (commonly understood here as Narayana). In this verse he emphasizes that the same Lord manifests as major cosmic powers (Rahu, the Moon, Indra) and as the very flow of actions across time, thereby urging Arjuna to recognize divine sovereignty behind events and duties.