Shloka 34
Bhīṣma’s Śara-śayyā Stuti to Vāsudeva and Yogic Preparation for Dehotsarga
Body-Relinquishment
यमाहुर्जगत: कोशं यस्मिन् संनिहिता: प्रजा: । यस्मिल्लोका: स्फुरन्तीमे जले शकुनयो यथा
bhīṣma uvāca | yam āhur jagataḥ kośaṃ yasmin saṃnihitāḥ prajāḥ | yasmin lokāḥ sphurantīme jale śakunayo yathā |
Bhishma said: “They call Him the treasury and storehouse of the universe, in whom all creatures are gathered and sustained. In Him the worlds throb and move—like birds that glide upon the surface of water—so that all cosmic activity rests upon Him as its support.”
भीष्म उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse presents the Supreme as the underlying repository and support of all beings and all worlds: everything lives, moves, and functions while resting upon Him, just as birds move upon water without leaving its surface.
In the Śānti Parva, Bhishma instructs Yudhiṣṭhira on dharma and higher truths; here he shifts into a devotional-philosophical praise, describing the Lord as the cosmic ground in whom all creatures abide and upon whom the worlds’ activity depends.