Shloka 4
दान-धर्म-आश्रमविधानम्
Dana, Dharma, and the Four Āśramas
पृथिवी पर्वता मेघा मूर्तिमन्तश्न ये परे । सर्व तद् वारुणं ज्ञेयमापस्तस्तम्भिरे यत:,पृथ्वी, पर्वत, मेघ तथा अन्य जो मूर्तिमानू, वस्तुएँ हैं, उन सबको जलमय समझना चाहिये; क्योंकि जलने ही उन सबको स्थिर कर रखा है
pṛthivī parvatā meghā mūrtimantaś ca ye pare | sarva tad vāruṇaṃ jñeyam āpas tastambhire yataḥ ||
Bharadvāja said: “The earth, the mountains, the clouds, and whatever other things possess tangible form—know all of that to be of the nature of water. For it is water that upholds and stabilizes them.”
भरद्वाज उवाच
Educational Q&A
All tangible forms—earth, mountains, clouds, and other embodied things—are to be understood as fundamentally ‘watery’ in nature, because water is presented as the sustaining basis that stabilizes and supports them.
In Śānti Parva’s didactic discourse, Bharadvāja is explaining a cosmological principle about the elemental basis of the world, emphasizing water (āpaḥ) as a foundational support for manifest, formed entities.