Shloka 140
Adhyāya 284: Tapas as a Corrective to Household Attachment
Parāśara’s Instruction
मृत्यु, क्षुर॒ .छेदन करनेका शस्त्र), कृत्य (छेदन करने योग्य), पक्ष (मित्र) तथा अपक्ष- क्षयंकर (शत्रुपक्षका नाश करनेवाले) भी आप ही हैं। आप मेघके समान काले, बड़ी-बड़ी दाढ़ोंवाले और प्रलयकालीन मेघ हैं ।। घण्टोडघण्टो घटी घण्टी चरुचेली मिलीमिली । ब्रह्मकायिकमग्नीनां दण्डी मुण्डस्त्रिदण्डधूक्ू,घण्ट (प्रकाशवान), अघण्ट (अव्यक्त प्रकाशवाले), घटी (कर्मफलसे युक्त करनेवाले), घण्टी (घण्टावाले), चरुचेली (जीवोंके साथ क्रीडा करनेवाले) तथा मिली-मिली (कारणरूपसे सबमें व्याप्त)--ये सब आप ही हैं। आप ही ब्रह्म, अग्नियोंके स्वरूप, दण्डी, मुण्ड तथा त्रिदण्डधारी हैं
mṛtyuḥ kṣuraś chedana-karaṇaṃ śastraṃ kṛtyaṃ chedana-yogyaṃ pakṣaḥ mitram apakṣa-kṣayaṅkaraḥ śatru-pakṣa-nāśakaś ca tvam eva | tvam megha-samaḥ kālaḥ mahā-dāḍhāḥ pralayakālīya-meghaḥ || ghaṇṭo ’ghaṇṭo ghaṭī ghaṇṭī carucelī milī-milī | brahma-kāyikam agnīnāṃ daṇḍī muṇḍas tri-daṇḍa-dhṛk tvam eva ||
Bhīṣma said: You alone are Death; you are the razor-like weapon that severs, the act and object fit to be cut, the ally and the destroyer of the enemy’s side. Dark as a raincloud, with fearsome fangs, you are like the clouds of the cosmic dissolution. You are also called Ghaṇṭa and Aghaṇṭa, Ghaṭī and Ghaṇṭī—powers that manifest and conceal, that bind beings to the fruits of action, and that resound through the worlds; you are Carucelī, sporting with living beings, and Milī-milī, pervading all as the causal principle. You are Brahman; you are the very forms of the sacred fires; you are the staff-bearer, the shaven ascetic, and the bearer of the triple staff.
भीष्म उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse identifies the supreme principle as both terrifying and sustaining: Death and Time, ally and destroyer, manifest and unmanifest. Ethically, it frames worldly power and mortality as expressions of a single cosmic order, urging humility and surrender to dharma rather than ego-driven control.
In Śānti Parva, Bhīṣma—lying on the bed of arrows—utters a hymn-like sequence of divine epithets. Here he praises the deity as the force behind destruction, karmic fruition, and ascetic discipline, using dense names and images (cloud-dark, pralaya, bells/time-measures) to convey omnipresence and sovereignty.