Shloka 71
धर्मस्य बहुद्वारत्वम् — Nārada’s Audience with Indra (Śānti-parva 340)
कृत्वा55त्मस्थानि भूतानि स्थावराणि चराणि च । एकाकी विद्यया सार्थ विहरिष्ये जगत् पुन:,“उस समय सम्पूर्ण चराचर प्राणियोंको अपनेमें लीन करके मैं अकेला ही अपनी विद्या- शक्तिके साथ सूने संसारमें विहार करूँगा
kṛtvā ātmasthāni bhūtāni sthāvarāṇi carāṇi ca | ekākī vidyayā sārtha viharīṣye jagat punaḥ ||
Bhīṣma said: “Having drawn all beings—both the immobile and the mobile—back into my own Self, I shall remain alone; and, accompanied only by my power of knowledge, I shall roam once more through the emptied world.”
भीष्म उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse presents a mokṣa-oriented vision in which the ultimate reality (the Self) is the ground into which all beings can be reabsorbed. It emphasizes the supremacy of vidyā (spiritual knowledge) and solitude/renunciation: when multiplicity is resolved, the knower remains alone, sustained by knowledge rather than external supports.
Bhīṣma describes a cosmic dissolution-like moment: all moving and unmoving beings are gathered back into the Self, leaving an emptied world. In that state, he speaks of existing alone and ‘wandering’ with his power of knowledge—an image of the liberated or transcendent standpoint beyond ordinary social and worldly structures.