Shloka 114

धर्मस्य बहुद्वारत्वम् — Nārada’s Audience with Indra (Śānti-parva 340)

Devanagari script

पितामहो<5पि भगवांस्तस्माद्‌ देवादनन्तर:

Transliteration

pitāmaho 'pi bhagavāṁs tasmād devād anantaraḥ

Translation

Dijo Yudhiṣṭhira: “Incluso el venerable Abuelo (Brahmā), aunque divino, ocupa inmediatamente el rango siguiente a ese dios.”

Word by Word

पितामहःthe grandsire (Brahmā/Grandfather)

अपिalso/even

भगवान्the blessed/lordly one

तस्मात्from him/therefore/from that

देवात्from the god

अनन्तरःnext/without interval/immediately following

Speaker

युधिछिर उवाच

Characters & Entities

Yudhiṣṭhira

Pitāmaha (Bhīṣma)

Deva (a god; unspecified in this half-verse)

Character Dynamics

Dharma Sankata (Moral Dilemma)

War Context

Verse Rasa (Emotional Essence)

Philosophical Teaching

Political Layer

Geographic Context

Sandhi Notes

Educational Q&A

What is the core teaching?

The line emphasizes ethical reverence and graded excellence: even a supremely venerable elder like Bhīṣma is spoken of in relation to a higher divine standard, suggesting that dharmic evaluation recognizes both human greatness and a transcendent benchmark.

What is happening in the narrative?

In the Śānti Parva’s instruction-setting, Yudhiṣṭhira is speaking about relative rank or precedence—placing Pitāmaha (Bhīṣma) immediately after a particular deity—within a broader discussion of dharma, authority, and exemplary figures.