Shloka 5
Uttanka’s Viśvarūpa Request and the ‘Uttanka Clouds’ Boon (उत्तङ्क-विष्वरूप-दर्शनम्)
सदसच्चैव यत् प्राहुरव्यक्तं व्यक्तमेव च । अक्षरं च क्षरं चैव सर्वमेतन्न्मदात्मकम्,विद्वान लोग जिसे सत-असत, व्यक्त-अव्यक्त और क्षर-अक्षर कहते हैं, यह सब मेरा ही स्वरूप है
sadasac caiva yat prāhur avyaktam vyaktam eva ca | akṣaraṃ ca kṣaraṃ caiva sarvam etan madātmakam ||
Vāyu said: “Whatever the wise describe as being and non-being, as the unmanifest and the manifest, and as the imperishable and the perishable—know that all of it is of my very nature. I pervade these seeming opposites, and their distinctions are only ways of speaking about the one reality.”
वायुदेव उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse teaches an all-pervading unity: categories like existent/non-existent, manifest/unmanifest, and perishable/imperishable are conceptual divisions used by the wise, but the underlying reality is one—identified here with Vāyu’s own essence. Ethically, it encourages seeing beyond rigid oppositions and recognizing a single sustaining principle behind changing forms.
Vāyudeva is speaking in a didactic passage, presenting a metaphysical instruction. He asserts his pervasive presence across all states of reality—subtle and gross, changing and unchanging—framing the teaching as authoritative knowledge conveyed to the listener(s) within the Ashvamedhika Parva context.