Shloka 138
Adhyāya 284: Tapas as a Corrective to Household Attachment
Parāśara’s Instruction
मत्स्यो जलचरो जाल्यो5कल: केलिकल: कलि: । अकालकश्चातिकाल श्र दुष्काल: काल एव च,आप मत्स्य, जलचर और जालधारी घड़ियाल हैं। फिर भी अकल (बन्धनसे परे) हैं। आप केलिकलासे युक्त और कलहरूप हैं। आपही अकाल, अतिकाल, दुष्काल तथा काल हैं
matsyo jalacaro jālyo 'kalaḥ kelikalaḥ kaliḥ | akālaś cātikālaś ca duṣkālaḥ kāla eva ca ||
Bhīṣma says: “You are the fish, the water-moving creature, and the net-bearing crocodile—yet you are also ‘Akala’, beyond bondage and limitation. You are playful sport itself, and you are Kali as well. You are untimely time, excessive time, time of calamity, and Time itself.”
भीष्म उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse teaches that the Supreme can be understood as manifesting in diverse, even paradoxical forms—creaturely and cosmic, playful and fearsome—yet remains beyond limitation. Time (kāla) and its auspicious/inauspicious phases are ultimately under that single divine sovereignty, reinforcing humility and dharmic vigilance.
In Śānti Parva, Bhīṣma is instructing Yudhiṣṭhira on dharma and higher truths. Here he offers a hymn-like identification of the Lord with multiple forms and with Time itself, emphasizing the all-encompassing nature of the divine principle that governs worldly change and moral consequence.