Shloka 59
Adhyāya 90: Babhruvāhana’s Reception and the Commencement of Yudhiṣṭhira’s Aśvamedha
प्राणधारणमात्रेण शकक्यं कर्तु तपस्त्वया । प्राणो हि परमो धर्म: स्थितो देहेषु देहिनाम्,प्राणधारणमात्रसे आप तप कर सकते हैं। देहधारियोंके शरीरोंमें स्थित हुआ प्राण ही परम धर्म है
prāṇadhāraṇamātreṇa śakyaṃ kartuṃ tapas tvayā | prāṇo hi paramo dharmaḥ sthito deheṣu dehinām ||
The son said: “By merely sustaining your life-breath you are able to perform austerity. For the vital breath itself—abiding in the bodies of embodied beings—is the highest dharma.”
पुत्र उवाच
Educational Q&A
Preserving one’s life-breath is presented as the highest dharma, because all duties and spiritual practices (including tapas) depend upon being alive; sustaining prāṇa is thus the foundational ethical obligation.
A son addresses someone engaged in or considering austerity, emphasizing that even the basic act of maintaining the life-breath counts as a meaningful discipline and that prāṇa, present in all embodied beings, is paramount.