Shloka 80
Bhīṣma’s Śara-śayyā Stuti to Vāsudeva and Yogic Preparation for Dehotsarga
Body-Relinquishment
जटिने दण्डिने नित्यं लम्बोदरशरीरिणे । कमण्डलूनिषज्जय तस्मै ब्रह्मात्मने नम:
jaṭine daṇḍine nityaṁ lambodaraśarīriṇe | kamaṇḍalūniṣajjaya tasmai brahmātmane namaḥ ||
Bhīṣma offers a reverential salutation to the Brahman-Self, envisioned in the ascetic form: ever a matted-haired renunciant, staff-bearing, with a pendulous-bellied body, and equipped with a water-pot and the ascetic’s seat.
भीष्म उवाच
Educational Q&A
Reverence is directed to the Brahman-Self, expressed through the ideal of renunciation: disciplined restraint (daṇḍa), simplicity (kamaṇḍalu, seat), and the ascetic identity (jaṭā). The ethical thrust is that inner realization and self-control are central to dharma.
In Śānti Parva, Bhīṣma instructs on dharma and higher aims; here he utters a salutation (namaḥ) to the Brahman-Self, describing it in the recognizable form of an ascetic, thereby linking metaphysical truth with the lived discipline of renunciation.