Shloka 5
Adhyāya 270 — Yudhiṣṭhira’s inquiry on saṃnyāsa; Bhīṣma on calculable time, tamas, and karma
Vṛtra–Uśanā exemplum begins
ततश्रिन्तामनुप्राप्त: कतमद्दैवतं तु तत् यन्ये द्रुतं प्रसीदेत मानुषैरजडीकृतम्
tataś cintām anuprāptaḥ katamad daivataṃ tu tat | yan me drutaṃ prasīdet mānuṣair ajadīkṛtam ||
Bhishma said: “Then he fell into reflection: ‘Which deity is it—one who would quickly be pleased with me, and whom human beings, by their modes of worship, have not reduced into something inert and merely mechanical?’”
भीष्म उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse highlights discernment in devotion: one should seek the living divine reality that responds to sincere inner surrender, not a deity-concept turned into a rigid, mechanical object through merely external, habitual worship.
Bhishma describes entering a state of contemplation, trying to identify which deity would swiftly grant grace—specifically, a deity not reduced by human practice into an inert, formulaic focus of worship.