Shloka 453
Aśvatthāmā’s Stuti of Rudra and Śiva’s Empowerment (सौप्तिकपर्व, अध्याय ७)
ये समाराध्य शूलाड्कं॑ भवसायुज्यमागता: । अन्न, सोमलताका रस, अमृत और चन्द्रमण्डल--चे चार प्रकारके सोम हैं, वे पार्षदगण इनका सदा पान करते हैं। उन्होंने वेदोंके स्वाध्याय, ब्रह्मचर्यपालन, तपस्या और इन्द्रिय- संयमके द्वारा त्रिशूल-चिह्लित भगवान् शिवकी आराधना करके उनका सायुज्य प्राप्त कर लिया है
ye samārādhya śūlāṅkaṃ bhavasāyujyam āgatāḥ |
Sañjaya said: “Those who have duly worshipped Bhava—Śiva, marked by the trident—have attained union with him (sāyujya). They are his attendants, ever drinking the fourfold Soma: food, the juice of the Soma-creeper, nectar, and the lunar orb. By Vedic study, the observance of brahmacarya, austerity, and restraint of the senses, they won the grace of the trident-bearing Lord and reached his state.”
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.