Shloka 66
भवतां दिव्यवाचस्तु ता भवन्तु कथं मृषा । “साधारण मनुष्योंकी बातें तथा उनकी प्रतिज्ञाएँ तो झूठी निकल जाती हैं; परंतु तुमलोगोंके सम्बन्धमें जो दिव्य वाणियाँ हुई थीं, वे कैसे मिथ्या हो सकती हैं?,युधिछिर उवाच अतिथि: सर्वभूतानामग्नि: सोमो गवामृतम् | सनातनोअमृतो धर्मो वायु: सर्वमिदं जगत् युधिष्ठिर बोले--अग्नि समस्त प्राणियोंका अतिथि है, गौका दूध अमृत है, अविनाशी नित्य धर्म ही सनातन धर्म है और वायु यह सारा जगत् है
vaiśaṃpāyana uvāca | bhavatāṃ divyavācastu tā bhavantu kathaṃ mṛṣā || yudhiṣṭhira uvāca | atithiḥ sarvabhūtānām agniḥ somo gavāmṛtam | sanātano'mṛto dharmo vāyuḥ sarvam idaṃ jagat ||
Vaiśaṃpāyana said: “How could those divine utterances spoken about you ever turn out to be false? Ordinary people’s words and vows may fail, but how could the heavenly prophecies concerning you be untrue?” Yudhiṣṭhira said: “Fire is the guest of all beings; the cow’s milk is nectar; the deathless, eternal Dharma is the Sanātana Dharma; and the Wind pervades—indeed, it is this entire world.”
वैशग्पायन उवाच
Educational Q&A
The passage contrasts fallible human speech with the reliability of ‘divine utterance’ and then frames Dharma through cosmic symbols: honoring the ‘guest’ (atithi) as sacred (Agni), valuing life-sustaining gifts (cow’s milk as amṛta), affirming Dharma as eternal and deathless, and recognizing a pervasive principle (Vāyu) that sustains the world—linking ethics with the structure of the cosmos.
Vaiśaṃpāyana, narrating the epic, raises a rhetorical question about how prophecies regarding the heroes could be false, even if ordinary vows fail. Yudhiṣṭhira responds with a set of solemn identifications—Agni as universal guest, Soma and cow’s milk as ‘nectar,’ Dharma as eternal, and Vāyu as all-pervading—articulating a worldview where moral duty is grounded in sacred, universal realities.