Shloka 93
Bhīṣma’s Śara-śayyā Stuti to Vāsudeva and Yogic Preparation for Dehotsarga
Body-Relinquishment
कृष्णव्रता: कृष्णमनुस्मरन्तो रात्रौ च कृष्णं पुनरुत्थिता ये । ते कृष्णदेहा: प्रविशन्ति कृष्ण- माज्यं यथा मन्त्रहुतं हुताशे
kṛṣṇavratāḥ kṛṣṇam anusmaranto rātrau ca kṛṣṇaṃ punar utthitā ye | te kṛṣṇadehāḥ praviśanti kṛṣṇam ājyaṃ yathā mantrahutaṃ hutāśe ||
Bhīṣma said: Those who have taken the vow of Kṛṣṇa—who keep remembering Kṛṣṇa, and who, even in the night, rise again with Kṛṣṇa in mind—become of Kṛṣṇa’s very form and enter into Kṛṣṇa, just as clarified butter, offered with mantra, enters the fire.
भीष्म उवाच
Educational Q&A
Single-pointed devotion expressed as disciplined remembrance (vrata + anusmaraṇa) transforms the devotee’s nature; such a person ‘enters’ Kṛṣṇa—i.e., attains intimate union or final refuge in the divine—like a properly consecrated oblation reaching the fire.
In Bhīṣma’s instruction in the Śānti Parva, he praises Kṛṣṇa-centered observance: devotees who continually remember Kṛṣṇa, even rising at night for renewed recollection, are described as becoming Kṛṣṇa-formed and merging into him, illustrated through the sacrificial image of ghee offered with mantra entering Agni.