Shloka 8
Makara-vyūha and Krauñca-prativyūha at Sunrise (मकरव्यूहः क्रौञ्चप्रतिव्यूहश्च)
शिरसा ते दिवं व्याप्तं बाहुभ्यां पृथिवी तथा । जठटरं ते त्रयो लोका: पुरुषोडईसि सनातन:
śirasā te divaṁ vyāptaṁ bāhubhyāṁ pṛthivī tathā | jaṭharaṁ te trayo lokāḥ puruṣo 'si sanātanaḥ ||
Bhīṣma said: “With your head you pervade the heavenly realm, and with your arms the earth as well. The three worlds abide within your belly. You are the eternal Person.”
भीष्म उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse teaches the Lord’s all-pervading, cosmic nature: heaven is encompassed by his head, earth by his arms, and the three worlds rest within him. Ethically, it frames true authority as grounded in the eternal, urging humility and devotion even in conflict.
In Bhīṣma Parva, Bhīṣma addresses the supreme Lord (understood in context as Kṛṣṇa/Nārāyaṇa) with a hymn-like declaration of his cosmic pervasion, acknowledging him as the eternal Purusha while the war setting heightens the contrast between transient battle and timeless divinity.