Shloka 6
Rudra-Śiva: Names, Two Natures, and the Logic of Epithets (रुद्रनाम-बहुरूपत्व-प्रकरणम्)
पश्षिमं मे मुखं सौम्यं सर्वप्राणिसुखावहम् । दक्षिणं भीमसंकाशं रौद्रे संहरति प्रजा:
paścimaṁ me mukhaṁ saumyaṁ sarva-prāṇi-sukhāvaham | dakṣiṇaṁ bhīma-saṅkāśaṁ raudre saṁharati prajāḥ ||
मेरा पश्चिममुख सौम्य है और समस्त प्राणियों को सुख देनेवाला है। परन्तु मेरा दक्षिणमुख भीम-सा भयानक है; रौद्र रूप में वह प्रजाओं का संहार करता है।
भीष्म उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse contrasts two directional ‘faces’ or aspects: one gentle and life-supporting, the other fierce and dissolving. Ethically, it points to a dharmic vision in which preservation and dissolution are both parts of a single cosmic order—benevolence and severity function together to sustain balance.
Bhīṣma is describing differentiated aspects (mukhas) associated with directions—west as soothing and welfare-giving, south as fearsome and connected with withdrawal/destruction of beings—within a broader instruction on cosmic principles and the governance of life and death.