Shloka 71
Adhyāya 284: Tapas as a Corrective to Household Attachment
Parāśara’s Instruction
सर्वतः:श्रुतिमँललोके सर्वमावृत्य तिष्ठसि । शंकुकर्ण महाकर्ण कुम्भकर्णारणवालय
sarvataḥ śrutim̐l loke sarvam āvṛtya tiṣṭhasi | śaṅkukarṇa mahākarṇa kumbhakarṇāraṇavālaya ||
आपण जगात सर्वत्र श्रवणशक्तियुक्त होऊन, सर्वांना आच्छादून स्थित आहात. हे शंकुकर्ण, हे महाकर्ण, हे कुम्भकर्ण, हे आरणवालय!
भीष्म उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse functions as a laudatory address emphasizing all-pervading attentiveness—an ideal of heightened listening/awareness—by invoking names/epithets associated with extraordinary ears or hearing.
Bhīṣma, in the course of his Śānti Parva instruction, addresses a figure using a string of epithets/names (Śaṅkukarṇa, Mahākarṇa, Kumbhakarṇa, Āraṇavālaya), portraying them as one who ‘covers the world with hearing’—a rhetorical praise or invocation within the discourse.