Shloka 8
अश्वशिरो-आख्यानम्
Aśvaśiras / Hayaśiras Narrative: Retrieval of the Vedas
नारायणो हि विश्वात्मा चतुर्मूर्ति: सनातन: । धर्मात्मज: सम्बभूव पितैव॑ मे5भ्यभाषत
nārāyaṇo hi viśvātmā caturmūrtiḥ sanātanaḥ | dharmātmajaḥ sambabhūva pitā iva me 'bhyabhāṣata ||
Bhīṣma said: “Nārāyaṇa is indeed the universal Self—eternal and manifest in four forms. He once appeared as the son of Dharma. This, as it were, my father himself declared to me.”
भीष्म उवाच
Educational Q&A
Dharma is rooted in the eternal divine principle: Nārāyaṇa is the universal Self and the timeless source from which righteous order and its exemplars arise; recognizing this links ethical life to devotion and metaphysical truth.
Bhīṣma, while instructing in Śānti Parva, cites an authoritative tradition received from his father: he identifies Nārāyaṇa as the cosmic Self, eternal and four-formed, and recalls that this deity manifested as the son of Dharma.