Shloka 21
Pitāmaha-sabhā-varṇana & Hariścandra-māhātmya
Description of Brahmā’s Assembly and the Eminence of Hariścandra
शब्दस्पर्शों तथा रूप॑ रसो गन्धश्ष भारत । प्रकृतिश्न विकारश्न यच्चान्यत् कारणं भुव:
śabda-sparśau tathā rūpaṁ raso gandhaś ca bhārata | prakṛtiś ca vikāraś ca yac cānyat kāraṇaṁ bhuvaḥ ||
Dijo Nārada: «¡Oh Bharata!, el sonido y el tacto, la forma, el sabor y el olor; junto con la Naturaleza primordial (Prakṛti) y sus transformaciones, y cualesquiera otras causas de la constitución del mundo: (todos estos principios están regidos por sus respectivas deidades).»
नारद उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse frames the world as arising from fundamental principles—sense-qualities (sound, touch, form, taste, smell) and the pair prakṛti (Nature) and vikāra (its evolutes)—implying an ordered cosmos where each domain has a governing principle/deity, encouraging a disciplined, reality-based understanding of existence.
Nārada is instructing the listener (addressed as ‘Bhārata’) by enumerating foundational constituents/causes of the world, as part of a broader explanatory discourse that links cosmic structure with the idea of presiding deities over these elements and qualities.