Shloka 20
पितृयज्ञे नारायणतत्त्वम् — The Nārāyaṇa Grounding of Ancestral Offerings
दैवतं कतमं होतदुत्तमां गतिमास्थितम् । सुनिश्चितमिहायाति विमुक्तमिव नि:स्पृहम्
daivataṁ katamaṁ hotad uttamāṁ gatim āsthitam | niścinītam ihāyāti vimuktam iva niḥspṛham ||
Śuka said: “Which deity is that—established in the highest state—toward whom one comes here with certainty, as if already liberated, free from craving and possessiveness?”
शुक उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse frames liberation as a state marked by niḥspṛhatā (freedom from craving). It asks which divine reality, being established in the highest goal, is approached with certainty by one who has become inwardly detached—suggesting that true spiritual attainment is inseparable from desirelessness.
Śuka, in the didactic setting of Śānti Parva, poses a probing question about the supreme object of realization or worship: which ‘daivata’ is truly the highest, such that approaching it is tantamount to liberation—like one already freed from worldly grasping.