Shloka 64
धर्मगुब् धर्मकृद् धर्मी सदसत्क्षरमक्षरम् । अविज्ञाता सहसारांशुविधाता कृतलक्षण:
dharmagup dharmakṛd dharmī sadasat kṣaram akṣaram | avijñātā sahasrāṃśu-vidhātā kṛtalakṣaṇaḥ ||
Bhīṣma berkata: Dialah penjaga dharma, penegak dharma melalui perbuatan, dan landasan segala kebajikan. Dialah yang Nyata sekaligus dunia yang tampak; yang fana dan yang tak binasa. Ia adalah Sang Mengetahui yang melampaui si mengetahui (diri individual); yang seribu sinarnya laksana matahari; penopang dan penata segala sesuatu; serta pemangku tanda-tanda suci pada tubuh-Nya.
भीष्म उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse presents Viṣṇu as the ultimate ground of dharma and reality: he both protects and enacts dharma, and he encompasses apparent opposites—truth and world, perishable and imperishable—showing that ethical order and cosmic order are rooted in the divine.
In Anuśāsana Parva, Bhīṣma is instructing and praising the supreme deity through a litany of epithets. This verse is part of that praise, identifying the deity’s moral role (guardian of dharma) and metaphysical scope (both kṣara and akṣara), reinforcing the devotional and ethical frame of Bhīṣma’s teaching.