Shloka 56
Pitṛ-śrāddha-haviḥ-phala-nirdeśa
Offerings for Ancestors and Their Stated Results
तया चाप्यभवन्मिश्रो गर्भ चास्यादधे तदा । ववृधे स तदा गर्भ: कक्षे कृष्णगतिर्यथा
tayā cāpy abhavan miśro garbha cāsyādadhē tadā | vavṛdhe sa tadā garbhaḥ kakṣe kṛṣṇagatir yathā ||
Bhishma said: “And he became united with her; at that time she conceived his embryo. That embryo then began to grow within her, just as fire—though dark in its course—flares up when lodged in a hollow or heap of fuel.”
भीष्म उवाच
Educational Q&A
Once potent energy—especially divinely sourced tejas—has been received and rightly contained, it naturally matures in due course; the simile of hidden fire suggests that power may be unseen at first yet inevitably manifests when conditions support it.
Bhishma describes a union leading to conception; the embryo is ‘deposited’ and then grows within the bearer, compared to fire that, though moving darkly/hidden, blazes up when lodged in a hollow or heap of fuel.