Shloka 17
Brahmā’s Enumeration of Primacies (Ādi) and the Supremacy of Knowledge
Jñāna
आश्रमाणां च सर्वेषां गार्हस्थ्यं नात्र संशय: । लोकानामादिर व्यक्त सर्वस्यान्तस्तदेव च,सब आश्रमोंका आदि गृहस्थ आश्रम है, इसमें संदेह नहीं है। समस्त जगत्का आदि और अन्त अव्यक्त प्रकृति ही है
āśramāṇāṃ ca sarveṣāṃ gārhasthyaṃ nātra saṃśayaḥ | lokānām ādir avyaktaḥ sarvasyāntas tadeva ca ||
Vāyu said: “Of all the stages of life, the householder’s way is the foundation—of this there is no doubt. And as for the worlds: their beginning is the Unmanifest, and their end too is that very same Unmanifest.”
वायुदेव उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse affirms two linked principles: (1) among the four āśramas, gārhasthya (householder life) is the practical foundation that sustains society and the other stages through work, hospitality, and sacrifice; (2) cosmologically, all worlds arise from and dissolve back into the Unmanifest (avyakta), emphasizing a cyclical view of creation and dissolution.
Vāyudeva is speaking as a teacher, offering a dharma-oriented instruction: he praises the centrality of the householder stage in the social order and then broadens the perspective to metaphysics, stating that the ultimate source and end of the worlds is the Unmanifest principle.