Shloka 178
त्वमेव हीज्यसे यस्माद् यज्ैविविधदक्षिणै: । त्वमेव कर्ता सर्वस्य तेन त्वं न निमन्त्रित:
tvam eva hījyase yasmād yajñair vividha-dakṣiṇaiḥ | tvam eva kartā sarvasya tena tvaṁ na nimantritaḥ ||
Bhīṣma said: “It is you alone who are truly worshipped, because sacrifices—endowed with many kinds of gifts and fees—are offered for your sake. You alone are the doer of everything; therefore you are not ‘invited’ as a separate guest.”
भीष्म उवाच
Educational Q&A
All ritual worship ultimately reaches the one supreme agent: since the divine is the inner recipient and the universal doer, treating that reality as merely one invitee among others is conceptually inadequate.
In Śānti Parva’s instruction, Bhīṣma explains a theological point about sacrifice and worship: the addressee is the true object of all yajñas and the ultimate cause behind all actions, hence not someone who needs to be ceremonially invited like an ordinary guest.