Shloka 23
अन्तश्नरति भूतानां मातरिश्वा सदागति: । स मे विमुज्चतु प्राणान् यदि पापं चराम्यहम्,“निरन्तर संचरण करनेवाले वायुदेव समस्त प्राणियोंके भीतर विचरते हैं। यदि मैंने कोई पापाचार किया हो तो वे वायुदेवता मेरे प्राणोंका परित्याग कर दें
antaścarati bhūtānāṁ mātariśvā sadāgatiḥ | sa me vimuñcatu prāṇān yadi pāpaṁ carāmy aham ||
Mātariśvan—the ever-moving Wind who continually courses within all beings—moves unseen in their very interior. If I have committed any sinful act, then let that Wind-god release my life-breaths and abandon me. (Thus the speaker invokes the indwelling witness and makes his own life the pledge for truth and purity.)
मार्कण्डेय उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse frames ethical self-accountability: since the life-breath (Vāyu/Mātariśvan) pervades all beings as an inner mover and witness, one should speak and act with truth and purity—so much so that the speaker stakes his very life on the absence of sin.
Mārkaṇḍeya utters a solemn imprecation-like oath: invoking the ever-moving Wind within all creatures, he declares that if he has committed wrongdoing, may that deity withdraw his prāṇas—using the indwelling divine presence as guarantor of his moral claim.