Shloka 5
अव्यक्तकालमान-निर्णयः
Measures of Time from the Unmanifest; Creation, Elements, and the Primacy of Mind
श्रुतोडसि न: पण्डितो धीरवादी साधुशब्दश्षरते ते पतत्रिन् कि मन्यसे श्रेष्ठतमं द्विज त्वं कस्मिन् मनस्ते रमते महात्मन्
śruto ’si naḥ paṇḍito dhīravādī sādhūśabdaḥ śrūyate te patatrin | kiṁ manyase śreṣṭhatamaṁ dvija tvaṁ kasmin manas te ramate mahātman ||
Bhīṣma said: “We have heard of you as a learned one, a steady and discerning speaker. O bird, the fame of your noble words is heard everywhere. In your judgment, what is the very best among things? And in what does your mind find its delight, O great-souled one?”
भीष्म उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse frames a dharmic inquiry: true excellence is to be identified through the testimony of the wise, and the state of one’s mind—what it naturally delights in—reveals one’s ethical and spiritual orientation. It foregrounds the value of learned, steady speech (sādhu-śabda) as a marker of wisdom.
Bhīṣma addresses a renowned bird-sage, acknowledging its reputation for wise and noble speech, and asks two guiding questions: what it considers the सर्वोत्तम (highest good) and where its mind finds abiding delight—setting up a discourse on values and dharma.