Shloka 14
एकं पाद॑ं नोत्क्षिपति सलिलाद्धंस उच्चरन् । त॑ं चेत् संततमूर्थ्वाय न मृत्युर्नामृतं भवेत् । योगिनस्तं प्रपश्यन्ति भगवन्तं सनातनम्,इस संसार-सलिलसे ऊपर उठा हुआ हंसरूप परमात्मा अपने एक पाद (जगत्)-को ऊपर नहीं उठा रहा है; यदि उसे भी वह ऊपर उठा ले तो सबका बन्ध और मोक्ष सदाके लिये मिट जाय। उस सनातन परमेश्वरका योगीजन साक्षात्कार करते हैं
ekaṃ pādaṃ notkṣipati salilād haṃsa uccaran | taṃ cet santatam ūrdhvāya na mṛtyur nāmṛtaṃ bhavet | yoginas taṃ prapaśyanti bhagavantaṃ sanātanam |
Sanatsujāta said: “A swan, moving upon the waters, does not lift up one of its feet from the flood. If it were to raise that foot as well—lifting it wholly and forever upward—then neither death nor deathlessness would remain. The yogins behold that eternal Lord: the Supreme, swan-like Reality who stands above the waters of worldly existence.”
सनत्सुजात उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse uses the swan-on-water image to point to the Supreme Reality that remains above and untouched by the ‘waters’ of saṃsāra. Yogins can directly perceive that eternal Lord. The striking claim—‘if that foot were lifted, neither death nor immortality would remain’—suggests a transcendence beyond all dualities (mṛtyu/amṛta), where ordinary categories of bondage and liberation lose their meaning in the highest realization.
In the Sanatsujātīya section of Udyoga Parva, Sanatsujāta instructs Dhṛtarāṣṭra on spiritual truth and the conquest of death through knowledge. Here he offers a contemplative metaphor: the Lord as a haṃsa moving over the flood of worldly existence, indicating the possibility of realizing the eternal principle that stands beyond the cycle of death and its opposite.