Shloka 27
चर्मण्वती नदी पुण्या कौशिकी यमुना तथा । नदी भीमरथी चैव बाहुदा च महानदी
carmaṇvatī nadī puṇyā kauśikī yamunā tathā | nadī bhīmarathī caiva bāhudā ca mahānadī ||
Bhīṣma said: “Sacred rivers—Carmanvatī, Kauśikī, and Yamunā; likewise Bhīmarathī, Bāhudā, and the great Mahānadī—(together with the long succession of deities, sages, celestial beings, holy places, mountains, times, and cosmic powers that are being enumerated here) are invoked as objects of reverence and as protectors. By remembering and naming them, one aligns oneself with auspicious order and seeks safeguarding from harm, whether the invoked beings are explicitly named or remain unnamed.”
भीष्म उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse participates in a protective, merit-generating remembrance: sacred rivers (and, by extension, the wider catalogue of revered beings and holy places in the passage) are honored as purifying powers. The ethical thrust is that reverent recollection and respectful invocation align a person with dharma and auspiciousness, seeking protection and the removal of obstacles.
Bhīṣma is in the midst of a long enumerative invocation (a namaskāra/protective litany) that lists rivers, deities, sages, celestial musicians and nymphs, holy sites, mountains, and cosmic divisions of time. This particular verse names several rivers as part of that ongoing catalogue.