Shloka 37
चतुर्युगसहस्रान्ते सलिलेनाप्लुता मही । ततो नारायणाख्यस्तु सहस्राक्ष: सहस्रपात्
caturyugasahasrānte salilenāplutā mahī | tato nārāyaṇākhyastu sahasrākṣaḥ sahasrapāt |
Bhīmasena said: At the close of a thousand cycles of the four yugas, the earth was submerged by waters. Then there appeared the one known as Nārāyaṇa—described as ‘thousand-eyed’ and ‘thousand-footed’—evoking the vision of the all-pervading Lord who remains present even when the world is dissolved, and whose cosmic form grounds the moral order beyond changing times.
भीमसेन उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse frames dharma within cosmic time: even when the world is dissolved at the end of immense cycles, the all-pervading Nārāyaṇa remains the sustaining reality. Ethical order is thus not merely social convention but rooted in a transcendent, enduring principle.
Bhīma recounts a cosmological scene: after a vast period (a thousand four-yuga cycles), the earth is flooded, and Nārāyaṇa is described in grand, universal terms (‘thousand-eyed, thousand-footed’), signaling a theophany-like depiction of the divine presence during dissolution.