Shloka 6
Dvaipāyana–Kīṭa Saṃvāda: Karmic Memory, Fear of Death, and Embodied Pleasure
यथा नागपदे<न्यानि पदानि पदगामिनाम् | सर्वाण्येवापिधीयन्ते पदजातानि कौज्जरे
yathā nāgapade 'nyāni padāni padagāminām | sarvāṇy evāpidhīyante padajātāni kauñjare ||
Bhīṣma dit : «De même que, dans l’empreinte de l’éléphant, toutes les autres traces des êtres qui marchent sur des pieds sont contenues et recouvertes, ainsi tout le reste est rassemblé dans le principe éminent enseigné ici.»
भीष्म उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse uses a simile to express comprehensiveness: as an elephant’s footprint can contain the smaller tracks of other animals, so one supreme dharmic principle or virtue can encompass and subsume many subsidiary duties and virtues.
Bhīṣma continues his instruction in the Anuśāsana Parva, illustrating his point with a vivid natural image—an elephant’s footprint—to show how multiple teachings or duties are gathered under a single overarching ethical principle.