Shloka 7

अध्याय २५६ — श्रद्धा, अहिंसा, स्पर्धा-त्यागः

Tūlādhāra–Jājali: Faith, Non-harm, and Renunciation of Rivalry

Devanagari script

पल्वलानि च सर्वाणि सर्व चैव तृणोपलम्‌ । स्थावरं जड़म॑ चैव भूतग्रामं चतुर्विधम्‌,ये सारे जलाशय, सब-के-सब घास और लता-बेलें तथा चार प्रकारके प्राणिसमुदाय (स्वेदज, अण्डज, उद्धिज्ज, जरायुज) भस्मीभूत हो रहे हैं। सारे जगत्‌का प्रलय उपस्थित हो गया है। भगवन्‌! प्रसन्न होइये। साधो! मैं आपसे यही वर माँगता हूँ

Transliteration

palvalāni ca sarvāṇi sarvaṃ caiva tṛṇopalām | sthāvaraṃ jaḍaṃ caiva bhūtagrāmaṃ caturvidham ||

Translation

Nārada said: “All ponds and pools, and indeed all grasses, creepers, and the like; the immovable and insentient world as well as the fourfold community of living beings—everything is being reduced to ashes. The dissolution of the world has arrived. O Blessed One, be gracious. O holy one, this is the boon I ask of you.”

Word by Word

• [{'term': 'palvala', 'meaning': 'pond, pool, small lake

• a water-reservoir'}, {'term': 'sarvāṇi / sarvam', 'meaning': 'all, everything'}, {'term': 'tṛṇa', 'meaning': 'grass, straw'}, {'term': 'upala', 'meaning': 'stone, pebble

• (by extension) inert matter'}, {'term': 'sthāvara', 'meaning': 'immovable beings/things

• the stationary creation (plants, mountains, etc.)'}, {'term': 'jaḍa', 'meaning': 'inert, insentient, non-conscious'}, {'term': 'bhūtagrāma', 'meaning': 'the aggregate/community of beings

• the totality of creatures'}, {'term': 'caturvidha', 'meaning': 'fourfold

• of four kinds'}, {'term': 'pralaya', 'meaning': 'cosmic dissolution

• the collapse of the manifested world-order'}, {'term': 'vara', 'meaning': 'boon, requested gift (often from an ascetic or deity)'}]

Speaker

नारद उवाच

Characters & Entities

• Nārada
• Bhagavān (addressed deity/sage)
• palvala (ponds/pools)
• tṛṇa (grasses)
• latā-vallī (creepers/vines, implied by context)
• bhūtagrāma (community of beings)
• caturvidha-jīva (fourfold living beings: svedaja, aṇḍaja, udbhijja, jarāyuja—per Gita Press gloss)

Educational Q&A

What is the core teaching?

The verse underscores impermanence: even the entire created order—water-bodies, vegetation, inert matter, and all classes of living beings—can be consumed in dissolution. Ethically, it pushes the listener toward detachment from transient forms and toward seeking refuge/boons from the truly enduring (dharma, tapas, the divine).

What is happening in the narrative?

Nārada describes a scene of cosmic destruction where all elements of the world are being burned to ashes, indicating that pralaya has arrived. In that crisis, he addresses a revered ‘Bhagavān’/holy one and states the boon he wishes to request, framing the moment as a solemn petition amid dissolution.