Shloka 11
बक-गौतमाख्यानम् / The Baka–Gautama Account
On Gratitude and Friendship Ethics
सलिलैकार्णवं तात पुरा सर्वमभूदिदम् । निष्प्रकम्पमनाकाशमनिर्देश्यमहीतलम्
salilaikārṇavaṃ tāta purā sarvam abhūd idam | niṣprakampam anākāśam anirdeśyam ahītalam ||
Bhīṣma said: “O dear one, in ancient times this entire world was nothing but a single ocean of water. It was without any vibration or disturbance; there was no manifest sky, and the earth could not even be indicated or named.”
भीष्म उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse frames creation as beginning from an undifferentiated, motionless state—symbolized by a single expanse of water—before distinct categories like sky (ākāśa) and earth (mahītala) become manifest. It points to the idea that the ordered world arises from an earlier, indistinct condition.
In Bhīṣma’s instruction during the Śānti Parva, he begins a cosmogonic account, describing the primordial condition of the world as a single, still ocean, with no discernible sky or earth yet present.