Shloka 26
अश्वशिरो-आख्यानम्
Aśvaśiras / Hayaśiras Narrative: Retrieval of the Vedas
प्रतिछतितं भूतभव्यं त्वयि सर्वमिदं जगत् | चत्वारो ह्ाश्रमा देव सर्वे गार्हस्थ्यमूलका:
praticchaditaṁ bhūtabhavyam tvayi sarvam idaṁ jagat | catvāro hy āśramā deva sarve gārhasthyamūlakāḥ ||
Nārada said: “In you, O divine one, this entire world—past and future—is contained and encompassed. And the four stages of life are all rooted in the householder’s way of life.”
नारद उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse affirms that the four āśramas are sustained by gārhasthya (householder life): through livelihood, hospitality, charity, and support of students, forest-dwellers, and renunciants, the householder becomes the practical foundation of the wider dharmic system.
Nārada addresses a divine interlocutor, praising them as the locus in which the whole cosmos—past and future—is held, and then pivots to a dharma instruction: emphasizing the centrality of the householder stage within the framework of the four āśramas.