Shloka 1
ध्यानयोगवर्णनम्
Description of the Path of Meditation
अपने-आप छा अं काज सप्ताशीत्यधिकशततमो< ध्याय: जीवकी सत्ता तथा नित्यताको युक्तियोंसे सिद्ध करना भूगुरुवाच न प्रणाशो5स्ति जीवस्य दत्तस्य च कृतस्य च । याति देहान्तरं प्राणी शरीरं तु विशीर्यते,भगुजीने कहा--ब्रह्मय! जीवका तथा उसके दिये हुए दान एवं किये हुए कर्मका कभी नाश नहीं होता है। जीव तो दूसरे शरीरमें चला जाता है, केवल उसका छोड़ा हुआ शरीर ही यहाँ नष्ट होता है
bhṛgur uvāca | na praṇāśo 'sti jīvasya dattasyāpi kṛtasya ca | yāti dehāntaraṃ prāṇī śarīraṃ tu viśīryate ||
Bhṛgu said: “The living self is never destroyed—nor are one’s gifts and performed deeds ever lost. The embodied being passes on into another body; only the discarded body here falls apart and perishes.”
भरद्वाज उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse teaches continuity across death: the jīva is not annihilated, and moral causality persists—charity given and deeds done are not wasted but remain effective as merit/demerit even when the body perishes.
In a didactic exchange within Śānti Parva, the sage Bhṛgu instructs his interlocutor on metaphysical and ethical continuity, contrasting the perishable body with the enduring living self and the lasting consequences of one’s actions and gifts.