Shloka 19
Gālava’s Eastern Ascent with Garuḍa; Counsel on Kāla and Upāya (उद्योगपर्व, अध्याय ११०)
तथा तथा द्विजश्रेष्ठ प्रविलियति गालव । नैतत् केनचिदन्येन गतपूर्व द्विजर्षभ
tathā tathā dvijaśreṣṭha pravilīyati gālava | naitat kenacid anyena gatapūrva dvijarṣabha ||
Yuparṇa said: “O best of brāhmaṇas, O Gālava—just so, little by little, the mass of snow melts away. O bull among the twice-born, no other man has ever gone beyond the Great Gate of the Gaṅgā before—none except the Lord Nārāyaṇa Himself and the ever-victorious, imperishable great-souled Nara. In this very direction lies Mount Kailāsa, renowned as the abode of Kubera.”
युपर्ण उवाच
Educational Q&A
The passage underscores human limitation before extreme sacred terrains and highlights that only extraordinary, divinely empowered beings (Nara and Nārāyaṇa) have surpassed certain thresholds. It frames sacred geography as a moral-spiritual boundary: not everything is attainable by ordinary effort alone.
Yuparṇa addresses the brāhmaṇa Gālava, describing how the snowfields melt as one advances toward the Gaṅgā’s great gateway, and states that no ordinary person has gone beyond that point—only Nārāyaṇa and Nara. He then indicates that Mount Kailāsa, Kubera’s abode, lies in that same direction.