Shloka 31
अनुक्रमणिकाध्यायः (Anukramaṇikā Adhyāya) — Invocation, Narrator Frame, and Textual Scope
अद्भुतं चाप्यचिन्त्यं च सर्वत्र समतां गतम् | अव्यक्तं कारण सूक्ष्मं यत्तत् सदसदात्मकम्,वह ब्रह्म अदभुत, अचिन्त्य, सर्वत्र समानरूपसे व्याप्त, अव्यक्त, सूक्ष्म, कारणस्वरूप एवं अनिर्वचनीय है और जो कुछ सत्-असत्रूपमें उपलब्ध होता है, सब वही है
adbhutaṃ cāpy acintyaṃ ca sarvatra samatāṃ gatam | avyaktaṃ kāraṇa-sūkṣmaṃ yat tat sad-asad-ātmakam ||
That supreme Reality is wondrous and beyond the reach of thought; it pervades all things with an equal presence. Unmanifest and subtle as the causal ground, it is spoken of as embracing both being and non-being—so that whatever is encountered as existent or non-existent is, in truth, nothing other than That Brahman.
Educational Q&A
The verse teaches that Brahman, the ultimate reality, is inconceivable yet all-pervading and equal in all; it is the unmanifest, subtle causal ground, and whatever appears as 'being' or 'non-being' is ultimately rooted in and not separate from that Brahman.
In the opening of the Ādi Parva, the text presents a philosophical characterization of the supreme principle (Brahman) as part of the work’s broader framing—establishing an ultimate ground of reality before moving into genealogies and the epic’s historical narrative.