Shloka 6
Rudra-Śiva: Names, Two Natures, and the Logic of Epithets (रुद्रनाम-बहुरूपत्व-प्रकरणम्)
पश्षिमं मे मुखं सौम्यं सर्वप्राणिसुखावहम् । दक्षिणं भीमसंकाशं रौद्रे संहरति प्रजा:
paścimaṁ me mukhaṁ saumyaṁ sarva-prāṇi-sukhāvaham | dakṣiṇaṁ bhīma-saṅkāśaṁ raudre saṁharati prajāḥ ||
Dijo Bhishma: «Mi rostro occidental es apacible y trae bienestar a todos los seres vivos. Pero mi rostro meridional, terrible en apariencia, en su aspecto feroz arrastra a los seres hacia su fin.»
भीष्म उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse contrasts two directional ‘faces’ or aspects: one gentle and life-supporting, the other fierce and dissolving. Ethically, it points to a dharmic vision in which preservation and dissolution are both parts of a single cosmic order—benevolence and severity function together to sustain balance.
Bhīṣma is describing differentiated aspects (mukhas) associated with directions—west as soothing and welfare-giving, south as fearsome and connected with withdrawal/destruction of beings—within a broader instruction on cosmic principles and the governance of life and death.