Shloka 3
दान-धर्म-आश्रमविधानम्
Dana, Dharma, and the Four Āśramas
यत् प्राण: सर्वभूतानां वर्थन्ते येन च प्रजा: । परित्यक्ताश्न नश्यन्ति तेनेदं सर्वमावृतम्,वह जल समस्त प्राणियोंका जीवन है। उसीसे प्रजाकी वृद्धि होती है। जलके न मिलनेसे प्राणी नष्ट हो जाते हैं। उसीने इस सम्पूर्ण जगत्के व्याप्त कर रखा है
bharadvāja uvāca | yat prāṇaḥ sarvabhūtānāṁ vartante yena ca prajāḥ | parityaktāś ca naśyanti tenedaṁ sarvam āvṛtam ||
Bharadvāja said: “That by which the life-breath of all beings is sustained, and by which creatures and communities grow—when it is absent, beings perish. By that very principle this entire world is pervaded and enveloped.”
भरद्वाज उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse teaches that the fundamental support of life and social flourishing is that which sustains prāṇa—understood here as water. Because deprivation leads to destruction, protecting and ensuring access to life-sustaining resources becomes an ethical duty within dharma.
In Śānti Parva’s instructional setting, Bharadvāja speaks in a didactic tone, explaining a universal principle: all beings live by a sustaining factor, communities grow by it, and without it they perish—thereby emphasizing the all-pervading importance of water (as clarified by the accompanying gloss).