Shloka 336
Ārṣṭiṣeṇa’s Siddhi and the Tīrtha-Boons; Sindhudvīpa–Devāpi Brāhmaṇya; Viśvāmitra’s Tapas Begins
पृथूदके जप्यपरो नैनं श्वोमरणं तपेत् । “जो सरस्वतीके उत्तर तटपर पृथूदकतीर्थमें जप करते हुए अपने शरीरका परित्याग करता है, उसे भविष्यमें पुन: मृत्युका कष्ट नहीं भोगना पड़ता”
pṛthūdake japyaparo nainaṃ śvomaraṇaṃ tapet |
Vaiśampāyana said: One who, intent on japa, relinquishes the body at the sacred ford called Pṛthūdaka on the northern bank of the Sarasvatī is not thereafter afflicted by the suffering of death again. The passage upholds the Mahābhārata’s ethic that disciplined devotion at a consecrated tīrtha, joined with conscious renunciation, is held to yield liberation from repeated mortality.
वैशम्पायन उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse teaches that concentrated spiritual practice (japa) performed at a sanctified tīrtha, culminating in conscious relinquishment of the body, is believed to free one from the recurring anguish of death—i.e., from repeated mortality.
Vaiśampāyana is describing the fruit (phala) of a specific pilgrimage site: Pṛthūdaka on the northern bank of the Sarasvatī. He states that a person devoted to japa who dies there attains a state where future death does not afflict him.