Shloka 8
Chapter 85: Suvarṇasya Janma ca Pradāna-Phalam
The Origin of Gold and the Merit of Gifting
मयाभिपन्ना: सिध्यन्ते ऋषयो देवतास्तथा । यान् नाविशाम्यहं गावस्ते विनश्यन्ति सर्वश:
mayābhipannāḥ sidhyante ṛṣayo devatās tathā | yān nāviśāmy ahaṃ gāvas te vinaśyanti sarvaśaḥ ||
Bhishma said: “Even the seers and the gods attain their fulfillment only when they are supported by me. O cows, those into whose bodies I do not enter are utterly ruined.”
भीष्म उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse asserts the dharmic and cosmic indispensability of the cow-principle: even sages and gods achieve siddhi only with its support, and beings (here, cows) lacking that sustaining presence fall into complete ruin—implying a moral duty to protect and honor cows as bearers of welfare and order.
In Bhīṣma’s discourse (Anuśāsana Parva), he speaks about the greatness and protective power associated with cows, declaring that their sustaining presence enables the success of ṛṣis and devatās, and warning that those cows not ‘entered’ or pervaded by that sustaining principle are destroyed.