Shloka 23
Bhīṣma’s Śara-śayyā Stuti to Vāsudeva and Yogic Preparation for Dehotsarga
Body-Relinquishment
हरिं सहस्रशिरसं सहस्नचरणेक्षणम्
hariṃ sahasraśirasaṃ sahasracaraṇekṣaṇam
Bhīṣma says: “(I contemplate) Hari—the all-pervading Lord—envisioned as having a thousand heads, and as possessing countless feet and eyes, a poetic way of affirming the Divine’s omnipresence and sovereign awareness over all beings and actions.”
भीष्म उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse teaches reverent contemplation of the Divine as omnipresent and all-seeing: describing Hari with innumerable heads, feet, and eyes underscores that no action is outside divine awareness, encouraging ethical self-restraint and dharmic conduct.
In Śānti Parva, Bhīṣma instructs Yudhiṣṭhira on dharma and right living; here he invokes Hari in exalted, cosmic imagery as part of a devotional or contemplative framing for moral instruction.