Shloka 49
कालनिर्णयः, युगधर्मवर्णनम्, सृष्टिक्रमश्च
Time-Reckoning, Yuga-Dharma, and the Sequence of Creation
वह कालरूप ब्रह्म अनन्त जलसे भरे हुए महासागरके समान गम्भीर एवं गहन है। उसका कहीं आदि-अन्त नहीं है। उसे ही क्षर एवं अक्षररूप बताया गया है ।।
śakra uvāca — sa kālarūpaḥ brahma anantajalase bhareṣu mahāsāgareṣu iva gambhīraḥ gahanaś ca; tasya kvacid ādir na antaś ca. sa eva kṣara-akṣararūpa iti kathitaḥ. sattveṣu liṅdram āveśya nirliṅdram api tat svayam; manyante dhruvam evainaṃ ye janās tattvadarśinaḥ—sa kālarūpaḥ parabrahma paramātmā svayaṃ nirākāraḥ san api sarvaprāṇiṣu jīvasya praveśaṃ kārayati.
Śakra disse: “Esse Brahman, cuja forma é o Tempo, é profundo e insondável como um vasto oceano repleto de águas sem fim. Não tem começo nem fim em parte alguma. É descrito como perecível e imperecível. Embora ele próprio seja sem marca ou forma, faz com que o princípio vivo sutil (jīva) entre nos seres; os que veem a realidade com verdade têm isso por certo.”
श॒क्र उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse teaches that the Supreme Reality, appearing as Time, is beginningless and endless, and is spoken of as both perishable and imperishable. Though formless and unmarked, it governs embodied existence by causing the living principle to enter beings, while itself remaining beyond embodiment.
Indra (Śakra) is speaking in a philosophical discourse within Śānti Parva, describing the nature of the supreme Brahman as Time—vast like an ocean, without beginning or end—and explaining how the formless Supreme is understood by truth-seers to be the inner governor of living beings.