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 ||
भीष्म बोले—“इस लोक से प्रस्थान करने वाले प्राणियों के लिए दो मार्ग हैं—देवयान, जो विष्णुलोक की ओर ले जाने वाला और इसलिए सात्त्विक है; तथा पितृयान, जिसे यहाँ तामस कहा गया है। इन दोनों पथों से कोई ऊपर स्वर्गलोकों को जाता है और कोई नीचे की अवस्थाओं को।”
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.