Mahabharata — Anushasana Parva, Shloka 22
अध्याय १६ — शङ्कर-उमा-वरदानम् तथा तण्डि-स्तुतिः (Śaṅkara–Umā Boon-Granting and Taṇḍi’s Hymn)
ब्रह्मा भवश्व विष्णुश्न स्कन्देन्द्री सविता यम: । वरुणेन्दू मनुर्धाता विधाता त्वं धनेश्वर:
brahmā bhavaś ca viṣṇuś ca skanda indraḥ savitā yamaḥ | varuṇa induḥ manuḥ dhātā vidhātā tvaṃ dhaneśvaraḥ ||
वायु ने कहा— आप ही ब्रह्मा, भव (शिव) और विष्णु हैं; आप ही स्कन्द, इन्द्र, सविता (सूर्य) और यम हैं। आप ही वरुण, चन्द्रमा, मनु, धाता और विधाता हैं; और आप ही धन के अधिपति कुबेर हैं।
वायुदेव उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse teaches a unitive vision: the one being addressed is identified with many deities and their functions. Ethically, it encourages humility and devotion by recognizing that all powers—creation, governance, justice, and prosperity—ultimately rest in a single supreme reality.
Vāyu is offering a hymn of praise (stuti), listing major gods and cosmic administrators and declaring them to be forms or aspects of the one addressed. This is a rhetorical device to express supremacy and all-pervasiveness.