Shloka 123
Adhyāya 284: Tapas as a Corrective to Household Attachment
Parāśara’s Instruction
संवत्सरस्त्वमृतवों मासो मासार्धमेव च । युगं निमेषा: काष्ठास्त्वं नक्षत्राणि ग्रहा: कला:,संवत्सर, ऋतु, मास, पक्ष, युग, निमेष, काष्ठा, नक्षत्र, ग्रह और कला भी आप ही हैं
saṃvatsaras tvam ṛtavo māso māsārdham eva ca | yugaṃ nimeṣāḥ kāṣṭhās tvaṃ nakṣatrāṇi grahāḥ kalāḥ ||
Bhīṣma dit : Tu es l’année et les saisons ; tu es le mois, et même la demi-lune. Tu es le yuga ; tu es les instants (nimeṣa) et les mesures du temps (kāṣṭhā). Tu es les demeures lunaires, les planètes et les divisions du temps (kalā).
भीष्म उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse teaches that the supreme reality addressed by Bhīṣma pervades and constitutes all measures of time—from vast epochs to fleeting instants—so dharma is grounded in aligning oneself with that cosmic order rather than treating time and fate as independent forces.
In Śānti Parva, Bhīṣma, lying on the bed of arrows and instructing Yudhiṣṭhira, offers a hymn-like praise in which he identifies the deity with the structures that govern the universe; here he enumerates units of time and celestial markers to express the deity’s all-pervasiveness.