Shloka 141

Devanagari script

यजवध्वं सुहुतैर्यज्ञै: शाश्वतं परमेश्वरम्‌ । पारम्पर्यागतं होतत्‌ पित्रा मे कथितं पुरा,आप सब लोग विधिवत्‌ हवन करके उत्तम यज्ञोंद्वारा उन सनातन परमेश्वरका यजन करें। यह परम्परासे प्राप्त हुआ उत्तम आख्यान मेरे पिताने पहले-पहल मुझसे कहा था

Transliteration

yajadhvaṁ suhūtair yajñaiḥ śāśvataṁ parameśvaram | pāramparyāgataṁ hotat pitrā me kathitaṁ purā ||

Translation

Bhīṣma said: “Perform worship through well-offered sacrifices, and adore the Eternal Supreme Lord. This sacred account, handed down through lineage, was once told to me by my father.”

Word by Word

• {'yajadhvam': 'worship (you all), perform sacrifice

• imperative plural of √yaj', 'suhūtaiḥ': 'well-offered, properly poured/oblated (offerings)', 'yajñaiḥ': 'by sacrifices, ritual offerings (instrumental plural)', 'śāśvatam': 'eternal, everlasting', 'parameśvaram': 'the Supreme Lord', 'pāramparyāgatam': 'received through tradition/lineage, transmitted successively', 'ākhyānam': 'narrative, sacred account (implied by the Hindi gloss

• often the understood object)', 'pitrā': 'by (my) father (instrumental singular)', 'me': 'to me / my', 'kathitam': 'told, narrated', 'purā': 'formerly, long ago'}

Speaker

भीष्म उवाच

Characters & Entities

• Bhīṣma
• Parameśvara (the Supreme Lord)
• Bhīṣma's father (Śāntanu, implied)

Educational Q&A

What is the core teaching?

Bhīṣma urges disciplined, properly performed sacrifice as a form of devotion to the Eternal Supreme Lord, emphasizing that such dharmic practice is grounded in authoritative tradition (paramparā).

What is happening in the narrative?

In the didactic setting of Śānti Parva, Bhīṣma instructs his listeners to worship the Supreme through well-offered rites and legitimizes the instruction by citing that he received this teaching through ancestral transmission from his father.