Shloka 6
शुकस्य मिथिलागमनम् (Śukasya Mithilāgamanam) — Śuka’s Journey to Mithilā and the Courtly Test
भूपाल! नरेश्वर! फिर वे अपने तेजसे जरायुज, अण्डज, स्वेदज और उदिभज्ज--इन चार प्रकारके प्राणियोंसे भरे हुए सम्पूर्ण जगत्को शीघ्र ही भस्म कर डालते हैं ।।
bhūpāla! nareśvara! punaḥ te svatejasā jarāyujāṇḍajasvedajodbhijja-caturvidha-prāṇibhiḥ paripūrṇaṃ samastaṃ jagat kṣipram eva bhasma kurvanti. etad-unmeṣa-mātreṇa vinaṣṭaṃ sthāṇu-jaḍam; kūrma-pṛṣṭham iva bhūmir bhavaty atha samantataḥ.
Yājñavalkya said: “O protector of the earth, O king! Then, by the sheer force of their radiance, they swiftly reduce to ashes the entire world—filled with the four classes of living beings: those born from the womb, from eggs, from sweat, and from sprouting. In the mere opening and closing of an eye, all that is fixed and all that moves is destroyed; and the earth, on every side, appears like the curved back of a tortoise.”
याज़्वल्क्य उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse underscores the fragility of the created order: even the totality of beings—classified in the traditional fourfold scheme of birth—can be annihilated in an instant by overwhelming tejas. Ethically, it presses the listener (a king) toward humility, detachment, and dharmic governance grounded in awareness of impermanence.
Yājñavalkya addresses a king and describes a catastrophic, near-instant destruction of the world. All living beings of every category are burned to ashes, and the earth’s surface is said to look like a tortoise’s back—an image evoking a transformed, desolated landscape during cosmic upheaval.