Shloka 173
Tīrtha-yātrā: Phalaśruti and Sacred Geography from Lohitya to Prayāga
Pulastya’s Instruction
तीर्थेषु सर्वदेवानां स्नात: स पुरुषर्षभ । सर्वदुःखै: परित्यक्तो द्योतते शशिवन्नर:,शत्रुदमन महाराज! पद्मनाभ भगवान् नारायणके निकट जाकर (उनका दर्शन करके) मनुष्य तेजस्वी रूप धारण करके भगवान् विष्णुके लोकमें जाता है। पुरुषरत्न! सब देवताओंके तीर्थोंमें स्नान करके मनुष्य सब दु:खोंसे मुक्त हो चन्द्रमाके समान प्रकाशित होता है
tīrtheṣu sarvadevānāṁ snātaḥ sa puruṣarṣabha | sarvaduḥkhaiḥ parityakto dyotate śaśivannaraḥ |
Ghūlastya said: “O bull among men, the one who has bathed in the sacred fords of all the gods becomes free from every sorrow; released from all afflictions, that person shines among people like the moon. The teaching is that pilgrimage and ritual purification, when undertaken with reverence, are portrayed as a means to inner cleansing and the lifting of grief, culminating in a luminous, ethically renewed life.”
घुलस्त्य उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse presents tīrtha-snān (bathing at sacred places) as a dharmic act that symbolically and spiritually removes sorrow and impurity, leading to a state of radiance and well-being—an ethical renewal expressed through the image of moonlike brightness.
A speaker named Ghūlastya addresses a revered listener (“best of men”) and praises the fruit of pilgrimage: one who bathes at the tīrthas associated with the gods becomes free from suffering and shines like the moon, reinforcing the Mahābhārata’s tīrtha-yātrā motif in the Vana Parva.