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Shloka 116

Puruṣaikatva-vyākhyāna: The One Virāṭ Puruṣa and the Many ‘Puruṣas’

Rudra–Brahmā Saṃvāda

कस्य वै को मतः कामो ब्रूत सत्य॑ द्विजोत्तमा: । तब राजा वसुने हाथ जोड़कर उन सबसे पूछा--'विप्रवरो! आपलोग सच-सच बताइये

kasya vai ko mataḥ kāmo brūta satyaṃ dvijottamāḥ |

ဘိဿမက ပြောသည်– «အမှန်တကယ် ပြောကြပါ၊ ဗြဟ္မဏအထွဋ်အမြတ်တို့၊ မည်သူ၏ ဆန္ဒသည် မည်သို့နည်း။ တစ်ဦးချင်းစီ မည်သည့်အမြင်ကို ကိုင်စွဲသနည်း။» ဇာတ်အတွင်း၌ မင်းကြီး ဝသုသည် လက်အုပ်ချီ၍ စုဝေးနေသော ဗြဟ္မဏတို့အား မလှည့်မပတ် ပြောကြရန် မေးမြန်းသည်—‘အဇ’ ကို ဆိတ်ဟုယူသူ မည်သူ၊ စပါး/အာဟာရဟုယူသူ မည်သူနည်း။

कस्यof whom / whose
कस्य:
Adhikarana
TypeNoun
Rootकिम्
FormMasculine/Neuter, Genitive, Singular
वैindeed
वै:
TypeIndeclinable
Rootवै
कःwho
कः:
Karta
TypeNoun
Rootकिम्
FormMasculine, Nominative, Singular
मतःopinion/view
मतः:
Karta
TypeNoun
Rootमत
FormMasculine, Nominative, Singular
कामःdesire/choice (what is wished)
कामः:
Karta
TypeNoun
Rootकाम
FormMasculine, Nominative, Singular
ब्रूतsay/tell (you all)
ब्रूत:
TypeVerb
Rootब्रू
FormImperative, 2nd, Plural
सत्यम्truth / truly
सत्यम्:
Karma
TypeNoun
Rootसत्य
FormNeuter, Accusative, Singular
द्विजोत्तमाःO best of the twice-born (Brahmins)
द्विजोत्तमाः:
TypeNoun
Rootद्विजोत्तम
FormMasculine, Vocative, Plural

भीष्म उवाच

B
Bhishma
K
King Vasu
B
Brahmins (dvijottamāḥ)
A
aja (goat/grain)

Educational Q&A

The verse foregrounds satya (truthfulness) and clarity in counsel: when words admit multiple meanings, ethical decision-making requires openly stating one’s intended interpretation rather than manipulating ambiguity for advantage.

Bhishma recounts a scene where King Vasu, with folded hands, asks the Brahmins to declare honestly which meaning they accept—whether ‘aja’ should be understood as ‘goat’ or as ‘grain/food’—so he can judge or act without bias.