Shloka 120
षट् षष्टि्हि सहस्राणि ऋषीणां भावितात्मनाम् | सूर्यस्य तपतो लोकान् निर्मिता ये पुर: सरा:
ṣaṭ-ṣaṣṭir hi sahasrāṇi ṛṣīṇāṁ bhāvitātmanām | sūryasya tapato lokān nirmitā ye puraḥsarāḥ ||
Bhīṣma said: “Sixty-six thousand sages—men of disciplined and perfected selves—were brought forth as the forerunners, as the Sun blazed in austerity, fashioning the worlds.”
भीष्म उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse teaches that enduring order—whether cosmic or social—arises from tapas (austerity/ardent discipline) and from leaders whose inner life is refined (bhāvitātman). The sages are portrayed as ‘forerunners’ who make creation and governance possible by embodying restraint, insight, and dharma.
In Bhīṣma’s instruction in the Śānti Parva, he describes a cosmogonic or primordial scene: as the Sun performs tapas and the worlds are fashioned, a vast host of perfected sages (66,000) are said to have been created/appointed as pioneers who go before—establishing the path and stabilizing the newly formed realms.