Shloka 4
Aśoka-śāstra: Nārada’s Instruction on the Cessation of Śoka
Grief
जिसके प्राण गुदामार्गसे निकलकर ऊपरकी ओर जाते हैं, वह मित्रदेवताके उत्तम स्थानको पाता है। कटिके अग्रभागसे प्राण निकलनेपर पृथ्वीलोककी और दोनों जाँघोंसे निकलनेपर प्रजापतिलोककी प्राप्ति होती है ।।
gudāmārgāt prāṇā ūrdhvaṃ niṣkramya mitradevatānām uttamaṃ sthānaṃ prāpnoti | kaṭy-agrabhāgāt prāṇe niṣkrānte pṛthivīlokaḥ, ubhābhyāṃ jaṅghābhyāṃ niṣkrānte prajāpati-lokaḥ prāpyate || pārśvābhyāṃ maruto devān, nābhyām indratvam eva ca | bāhubhyām indram evāhur, urasā rudram eva ca ||
Yājñavalkya explains: the destination attained after death is said to correspond to the bodily ‘exit’ of the vital breath. If the life-breath departs upward through the anal passage, one reaches the excellent station of the Mitra-deities. If it departs from the forepart of the hips, one attains the earthly world; if through both thighs, the world of Prajāpati. If through the two sides (ribs/flanks), one goes to the Maruts; if through the navel, to the status of Indra; if through the arms, again to Indra’s state; and if through the chest, to Rudra’s world.
याज्ञवल्क्य उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse teaches a cosmological-ethical mapping between the ‘exit’ of prāṇa at death and the realm attained thereafter—Mitra-deities, Earth, Prajāpati, Maruts, Indra, or Rudra—implying that one’s inner discipline and final state of being shape the post-mortem trajectory.
In Śānti Parva’s instructional setting, Yājñavalkya is delivering a doctrinal explanation about death and the afterlife, listing specific bodily points through which prāṇa is said to depart and the corresponding divine worlds reached.