Shloka 39
आत्यन्तिक-लयहेतुः: तापत्रय-विवेचनम् तथा ‘भगवान्/वासुदेव’ शब्दार्थः
Threefold Suffering and the Path to Final Liberation; Meaning of Bhagavān and Vāsudeva
मर्मभिद्भिर् महारोगैः क्रकचैर् इव दारुणैः शरैर् इवान्तकस्योग्रैश् छिद्यमानास्थिबन्धनः
marmabhidbhir mahārogaiḥ krakacair iva dāruṇaiḥ śarair ivāntakasyograiś chidyamānāsthibandhanaḥ
Grievous diseases pierce his vital spots, as though cruel saws were rending his body, or as though Death’s fierce arrows struck him, until the very bonds of bone and frame seem cut apart.
Sage Parāśara (narrating to Maitreya)
Speaker: Parasara
Topic: The violent pain of terminal disease likened to saws and Death’s arrows
Teaching: Ethical
Quality: authoritative
Concept: The body, assumed to be a support, becomes a field of unbearable torment at death; thus it is unfit as an ultimate refuge and should not be the basis of identity.
Vedantic Theme: Maya
Application: Use embodied vulnerability to deepen humility and reliance on the Divine; cultivate remembrance practices that can continue even amid pain (simple nāma).
Vishishtadvaita: Underscores the difference between perishable body (acit) and the enduring self (cit) whose true support is the Lord; encourages taking Nārāyaṇa as upāya (means) rather than bodily strength.
FAQs
Antaka functions as a poetic emblem of inevitable mortality—showing that even the powerful are subject to decay and dissolution, reinforcing detachment from worldly pride.
Through intense similes—disease as ‘vital-point piercing,’ saws, and Death’s arrows—Parāśara depicts suffering as a force that dismantles the body’s very structure, underscoring the impermanence of embodied life.
By emphasizing the body’s vulnerability and the certainty of death, the narrative implicitly points beyond transient power to the enduring refuge of Vishnu, the supreme sustaining reality amid the cycles of birth and dissolution.