Shloka 68
Bhīṣma’s Śara-śayyā Stuti to Vāsudeva and Yogic Preparation for Dehotsarga
Body-Relinquishment
ब्रह्म वक्त्रं भुजौ क्षत्र॑ कृत्स्नमूरूदरं विश: । पादौ यस्याश्रिता: शूद्रास्तस्मै वर्णात्मने नम:
brahma vaktraṁ bhujau kṣatra kṛtsnam ūrū-daraṁ viśaḥ | pādau yasyāśritāḥ śūdrās tasmai varṇātmane namaḥ ||
Bhīṣma said: “Brahmins are his mouth; Kṣatriyas are his arms; Vaiśyas are wholly his thighs and belly; and Śūdras take refuge at his feet. To that Being whose very nature is the fourfold social order, I bow.”
भीष्म उवाच
Educational Q&A
Society’s four varṇas are presented as limbs of a single higher Being, implying an organic interdependence and a sacred framework for social duties; the verse culminates in reverence toward that unifying principle.
In Śānti Parva, Bhīṣma instructs on dharma and social order; here he uses the ‘body’ metaphor to describe the varṇas and offers a salutation to the divine reality that encompasses them.