Shloka 23
प्रयागं च प्रभासं च पुण्यं नैमिषमेव च । तच्च विश्वेश्वरस्थानं यत्र तद्विमलं सर:
bhīṣma uvāca | prayāgaṃ ca prabhāsaṃ ca puṇyaṃ naimiṣam eva ca | tacca viśveśvarasthānaṃ yatra tad vimalaṃ saraḥ ||
Bhishma said: “(I invoke) Prayāga, Prabhāsa, the holy Naimiṣa forest, and that seat of Viśveśvara where the stainless lake lies. May these sacred tīrthas—together with all the deities, sages, celestial beings, rivers, mountains, times and cosmic powers (whether named or unnamed)—ever protect us.”
भीष्म उवाच
Educational Q&A
Remembering and honoring sacred tīrthas and the divine order is presented as a means of purification and protection; it reinforces dharmic conduct by orienting the mind toward what is holy and sin-destroying.
Bhishma is reciting an invocation that names major pilgrimage sites—Prayāga, Prabhāsa, and Naimiṣa—and a Śiva-associated holy locus (Viśveśvara’s seat with a pure lake), as part of a broader protective remembrance that calls upon sacred places and cosmic powers to safeguard the listener.