Atithi-prāpti and the Brāhmaṇa’s Deliberation on Triadic Dharma (अतिथिप्राप्तिः धर्मत्रयविचारश्च)
निवृत्तं चास्थितो धर्म क्षमी भागवत: प्रभु: । निवृत्तिधर्मान् विदधे स एव भगवान् प्रभु:,सबके स्वामी क्षमाशील भगवान् नारायण स्वयं तो निवृत्तिधर्ममें ही स्थित हैं और उन्हीं सर्वशक्तिमान् भगवानने निवृत्तिधर्मोंका विधान किया है
śaunaka uvāca | nivṛttaṃ cāsthito dharmaḥ kṣamī bhāgavataḥ prabhuḥ | nivṛtti-dharmān vidadhe sa eva bhagavān prabhuḥ ||
Shaunaka said: “The Lord—Narayana, the patient and forbearing Bhagavan—abides in the path of renunciation (nivritti); and it is that very Bhagavan, the sovereign Master, who established the disciplines of renunciant dharma.”
शौनक उवाच
Renunciant dharma (nivṛtti) and the virtue of forbearance (kṣamā) are presented as divinely grounded: the Lord himself abides in renunciation and is the authoritative source who ordains the disciplines of withdrawal from worldly pursuits.
Śaunaka, in a didactic setting, characterizes Bhagavān (understood here as Nārāyaṇa) as both exemplar and legislator of nivṛtti-dharma—linking the ethical ideal of renunciation to the Lord’s own nature and authority.