Shloka 18
कृतयुगवर्णनम् तथा राजधर्मोपदेशः
Kṛtayuga Description and Instruction on Royal Dharma
अव्यक्ताय सुसूक्ष्माय निर्गुणाय गुणात्मने । स एष पुरुषव्याघत्र पीतवासा जनार्दन:
avyaktāya susūkṣmāya nirguṇāya guṇātmane | sa eṣa puruṣavyāghra pītavāsā janārdanaḥ ||
Vaiśampāyana said: “To the Unmanifest, the exceedingly subtle, the attributeless yet the very ground of all attributes—this is that Janārdana, clad in yellow garments, O tiger among men.”
वैशम्पायन उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse identifies Janārdana as transcendent (unmanifest, subtle, beyond limiting qualities) while also immanent as the basis of all qualities (guṇātman). It frames devotion and recognition of the divine as compatible with philosophical insight into nirguṇa and saguṇa aspects.
Vaiśampāyana, as narrator, describes Janārdana with exalted metaphysical epithets and a recognizable iconographic marker (yellow garments), presenting him to the listener as the supreme figure worthy of reverence.