Shloka 6
Aśoka-śāstra: Nārada’s Instruction on the Cessation of Śoka
Grief
प्राणेन गन्धवहन नेत्राभ्यामग्निमेव च । भ्रूभ्यां चैवाश्विनौ देवा ललाटेन पितृनथ
prāṇena gandhavahanaṃ netrābhyām agnim eva ca | bhrūbhyāṃ caivāśvinau devā lalāṭena pitṝn atha ||
Yājñavalkya explains the doctrine of the soul’s departure: if the life-breath (prāṇa) exits through the nose, one reaches Vāyu, the bearer of fragrance; if through the two eyes, one attains Agni; if through the two eyebrows, one goes to the Aśvin twins; and if through the forehead, one reaches the Pitṛs, the ancestral spirits. Thus death is taught not as chaos, but as a morally ordered passage, governed by subtle channels and their corresponding divine destinations.
याज्ञवल्क्य उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse teaches that the point of exit of prāṇa at death corresponds to specific divine realms—Vāyu, Agni, the Aśvins, or the Pitṛs—presenting death as a structured transition governed by subtle physiology and cosmic order.
In Śānti Parva’s instructional setting, Yājñavalkya is expounding a doctrinal account of ‘utkrānti’ (departure of life-breath), mapping bodily exit-points to the deities or ancestral realm that the departing being is said to attain.