Shloka 42
मानसतीर्थ-शौचप्रशंसा | Praise of the ‘Mental Tīrtha’ and the Marks of Purity
नीयते रुद्रकन्याभि: सो<न्तरिक्षं सनातनम् | अष्टादश सहस््राणि वर्षाणां कल्पमेव च
nīyate rudrakanyābhiḥ so 'ntarikṣaṃ sanātanam | aṣṭādaśa sahasrāṇi varṣāṇāṃ kalpam eva ca ||
रुद्र की कन्याएँ उसे सनातन अन्तरिक्ष-लोक में ले जाती हैं; वहाँ वह अठारह हजार वर्षों तक—हाँ, एक कल्प के समान दीर्घ काल तक—निवास करता है।
भीष्म उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse emphasizes the Mahābhārata’s moral-cosmic framework: actions and divine ordinances can result in post-mortem movement through specific realms, and the consequences (reward or condition) may endure for immense, quasi-cosmic spans of time.
Bhīṣma describes a person being carried by Rudra’s daughters into the antarikṣa (the mid-air realm) and remaining there for an extraordinarily long duration—eighteen thousand years—characterized as kalpa-like in magnitude.