Shloka 30
अग्नीषोमोत्पत्तिः
Agni–Soma Origin and the Brahmāgnīṣomīya Doctrine
देवयानचरो विष्णो: पितृयाणश्व॒ तामस: । द्वावेतौ प्रेत्य पन्थानौ दिव॑ चाधश्ष गच्छत:
devayānacaro viṣṇoḥ pitṛyāṇaś ca tāmasaḥ | dvāv etau pretya panthānau divaṃ cādhaś ca gacchataḥ ||
Bhīṣma dit : «Pour les êtres qui quittent ce monde, il est deux voies : la Devayāna, la voie divine qui mène au séjour de Viṣṇu et s’accorde donc avec sattva ; et la Pitṛyāna, la voie des ancêtres, qualifiée ici de tamasique. Par ces deux routes, l’un monte vers les régions célestes, l’autre descend vers des états inférieurs.»
भीष्म उवाच
Educational Q&A
Bhīṣma teaches that post-mortem destiny is described in terms of two broad trajectories: an upward, divine course (Devayāna) associated with purity and higher realization, and an ancestral course (Pitṛyāna) characterized here as tamasic, tending toward lower or less luminous outcomes. The verse frames ethical-spiritual quality as shaping one’s direction after death.
In Śānti Parva’s instruction-setting, Bhīṣma is advising Yudhiṣṭhira on dharma and the consequences of conduct. Here he summarizes a cosmological-ethical map of the afterlife, distinguishing two routes by which departed beings are said to proceed—upward to higher worlds (linked with Viṣṇu) or downward to lower states.