Mahabharata — Anushasana Parva, Shloka 45

आचारप्रशंसा

Praise of Ācāra as the Basis of Longevity, Fame, and Prosperity

Devanagari script

उदड़्मुखश्नव सततं शौचं कुर्यात्‌ समाहित:

Transliteration

udaṅmukhaḥ snānaṃ satataṃ śaucaṃ kuryāt samāhitaḥ

Translation

ဘီရှ္မက မိန့်တော်မူသည်– မြောက်ဘက်ကို မျက်နှာမူ၍ အမြဲတမ်း ရေချိုးသင့်ပြီး၊ စိတ်ကို စုစည်းတည်ငြိမ်စွာထားကာ သန့်ရှင်းမှုကို အစဉ်မပြတ် ထိန်းသိမ်းရမည်—အကျင့်အကြံ၌လည်းကောင်း၊ ကိုယ်ခန္ဓာသန့်ရှင်းရေး၌လည်းကောင်း။

Word by Word

• उदङ्मुखः: facing north (having face turned north)
• उदङ्मुखः: Karta
• Type: Adjective
• Root: उदङ्मुख
• Form: Masculine, Nominative, Singular

• स्नानम्: bathing
• स्नानम्: Karma
• Type: Noun
• Root: स्नान
• Form: Neuter, Accusative, Singular

• सततम्: always, constantly
• Type: Indeclinable
• Root: सतत

• शौचम्: purity, cleanliness
• शौचम्: Karma
• Type: Noun
• Root: शौच
• Form: Neuter, Accusative, Singular

• कुर्यात्: should do / should perform
• Type: Verb
• Root: कृ
• Form: Optative (Vidhi-lin), 3rd, Singular, Parasmaipada

• समाहितः: collected, composed, attentive
• समाहितः: Karta
• Type: Adjective
• Root: समाहित
• Form: Masculine, Nominative, Singular

Speaker

भीष्म उवाच

Characters & Entities

• Bhīṣma

Educational Q&A

What is the core teaching?

The verse teaches disciplined purity: regular bathing and sustained śauca (cleanliness and moral purity) practiced with a focused, composed mind.

What is happening in the narrative?

In Anuśāsana Parva, Bhīṣma continues instructing on dharma and proper conduct, giving practical observances—here emphasizing bathing and maintaining purity as part of ethical and ritual discipline.