Shloka 100
Atithi-prāpti and the Brāhmaṇa’s Deliberation on Triadic Dharma (अतिथिप्राप्तिः धर्मत्रयविचारश्च)
स आदि: स मध्य: स चान्त: प्रजानां स धाता स थेयं स कर्ता स कार्यम् | युगान्ते प्रसुप्त: सुसंक्षिप्प लोकान् युगादौ प्रबुद्धो जगद्धयुत्ससर्ज
sa ādiḥ sa madhyaḥ sa cāntaḥ prajānāṃ sa dhātā sa dheyaṃ sa kartā sa kāryam | yugānte prasuptaḥ susaṃkṣipya lokān yugādau prabuddho jagad dhy utsasarja, vai hi bhagavān nārāyaṇaḥ ||
ヴィヤーサは語った。「ただ彼のみが、衆生の始めであり、中ほどであり、終わりである。彼は支える者、証得されるべき目標、行為者、そして行為そのものでもある。劫の終わりには、あらゆる世界を収め尽くして宇宙の眠りに横たわり、劫の初めには、目覚めて再び全宇宙を創り出す—まさしくその主こそナーラーヤナである。」
व्यास उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse teaches the all-encompassing sovereignty of Nārāyaṇa: He is simultaneously origin, continuity, and end; both the agent and the objective; and the cosmic power behind dissolution and creation. Ethically, it frames dharma and spiritual striving as oriented toward the divine ground that pervades all action and all outcomes.
Vyāsa is describing the supreme principle (identified as Bhagavān Nārāyaṇa) in cosmic terms—how the Lord withdraws the worlds at the end of an age and recreates them at the beginning of the next—within the Shānti Parva’s broader instruction on peace, right understanding, and ultimate reality.