Shloka 49
Bhīṣma’s Śara-śayyā Stuti to Vāsudeva and Yogic Preparation for Dehotsarga
Body-Relinquishment
जिन्होंने तीनों लोकोंका हित करनेके लिये यज्ञमय वराहका स्वरूप धारण करके इस पृथ्वीको रसातलसे ऊपर उठाया था, उन वीर्यस्वरूप भगवान्को प्रणाम है ।।
yaḥ śete yogam āsthāya paryaṅke nāgabhūṣite | phaṇāsahasraracite tasmai nidrātmane namaḥ ||
Salutations to the Lord whose very nature is might: for the welfare of the three worlds he assumed the sacrificial form of Varāha and raised the Earth from Rasātala. And salutations to the Supreme whose “sleep” is divine: sustained by yogic power he reclines in tranquil repose upon a couch fashioned from the thousand hoods of Śeṣa—sleep not of ignorance, but of sovereign stillness that protects and secretly governs the worlds.
भीष्म उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse teaches reverent recognition of the Supreme Lord’s quiet sovereignty: even in ‘sleep’ he sustains and protects the cosmos through yoga. Ethically, it models humility and devotion—acknowledging that worldly order and welfare rest on a higher, steady principle beyond human power.
In the Shanti Parva, Bhishma is instructing and also offering hymnic salutations. Here he praises the Lord (Vishnu/Narayana) as reclining on Śeṣa’s thousand-hooded couch, invoking the image of cosmic repose that underlies creation’s stability.