Shloka 34

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

Devanagari script

“महाबली वासुदेव सम्पूर्ण भूतोंके आत्मा हैं। पृथ्वी, जल, तेज, वायु और आकाश--ये पाँच महाभूत हैं ।।

Transliteration

bhīṣma uvāca | mahābalī vāsudevaḥ sampūrṇa-bhūtānām ātmā | pṛthivī jalaṃ tejo vāyur ākāśaś ca—etāni pañca mahābhūtāni || te sametā mahātmānaḥ śarīram iti saṃjñitam | tadā viśati yo brahman adṛśyo laghu-vikramaḥ ||

Translation

Bhīṣma dit : «Le très puissant Vāsudeva est, dans sa plénitude, le Soi intérieur de tous les êtres. Terre, eau, feu, vent et espace : tels sont les cinq grands éléments. Lorsque ces grands éléments se réunissent, on les désigne collectivement comme le “corps”. Alors, ô brahmane, le principe conscient, invisible et prompt, qui y pénètre, est ce qu’on appelle le jīva, le soi individuel.»

Word by Word

• {'mahābalī': 'mighty, of great power', 'vāsudevaḥ': 'Vāsudeva (Kṛṣṇa/Nārāyaṇa), the supreme indwelling Lord', 'ātmā': 'Self

• indwelling principle', 'bhūta': 'being

• constituent of embodied existence', 'pañca mahābhūtāni': 'the five great elements (earth, water, fire, wind, space)', 'pṛthivī': 'earth', 'jala': 'water', 'tejas': 'fire

• heat-energy', 'vāyu': 'wind

• vital air', 'ākāśa': 'space

• ether', 'sametāḥ': 'assembled together

• combined', 'śarīra': 'body

• embodied frame', 'saṃjñitam': 'designated

• known as', 'brahman': 'O Brahman

• address to a learned sage/priestly interlocutor', 'adṛśyaḥ': 'unseen

• imperceptible', 'laghu-vikramaḥ': 'swift in movement

• quick-acting', 'viśati': 'enters'}

Speaker

भीष्म उवाच

Characters & Entities

• Bhīṣma
• Vāsudeva
• Brahman (addressee)
• pañca mahābhūtāni (earth, water, fire, wind, space)
• śarīra (body)
• jīva (individual self)

Educational Q&A

What is the core teaching?

The body is a composite of the five great elements, while the living self is an unseen conscious principle that enters and animates that elemental aggregate; above all, Vāsudeva is affirmed as the universal inner Self of all beings.

What is happening in the narrative?

In the Śānti Parva’s instruction on dharma and higher knowledge, Bhīṣma explains to his listener (addressed as ‘Brahman’) how embodiment arises from the five elements and how consciousness (the jīva) becomes associated with the body, framing this within devotionally colored metaphysics by identifying Vāsudeva as the indwelling Self.