Shloka 453
Aśvatthāmā’s Stuti of Rudra and Śiva’s Empowerment (सौप्तिकपर्व, अध्याय ७)
ये समाराध्य शूलाड्कं॑ भवसायुज्यमागता: । अन्न
ye samārādhya śūlāṅkaṃ bhavasāyujyam āgatāḥ |
Sañjaya berkata: “Mereka yang dengan semestinya memuja Bhava—Śiva bertanda trisula—telah mencapai sāyujya, persatuan dengannya. Mereka adalah para pengiring-Nya, senantiasa meminum Soma yang empat macam: makanan, sari tanaman Soma, amerta, dan cakram rembulan. Dengan swādhyāya Weda, brahmacarya, tapa, serta pengendalian indria, mereka meraih anugerah Sang Bertisula dan sampai pada keadaan-Nya.”
संजय उवाच
Educational Q&A
The passage links spiritual attainment (sāyujya with Śiva) to disciplined practice: Vedic study, brahmacarya, austerity, and sense-restraint, culminating in devoted worship of the trident-bearing Lord. Ethical self-mastery is presented as the foundation for divine proximity and liberation-like union.
Sañjaya describes a class of Śiva’s attendants who have attained union with Bhava through worship and ascetic disciplines. He characterizes their exalted state by saying they continually partake of ‘four kinds of Soma’—symbolic forms of sacred nourishment and immortality associated with divine realms.