Shloka 156
धर्मद्वारबहुत्वविमर्शः — Reflection on the Many ‘Doors’ of Dharma (Śānti-parva 342)
अनिरुद्ध इति प्रोक्तो लोकानां प्रभवाप्यय: । उसीसे सृष्टि और प्रलय आदि सम्पूर्ण विकार प्रकट होते हैं। वही तप, यज्ञ और यजमान है, वही पुरातन विराट पुरुष है, उसे ही अनिरुद्ध कहा गया है। उसीसे लोकोंकी सृष्टि और प्रलय होते हैं
aniruddha iti prokto lokānāṃ prabhavāpyayaḥ |
Arjuna disse: Ele é chamado “Aniruddha” — a fonte de onde os mundos surgem e para onde se dissolvem. Dele procedem a criação e a dissolução e todas as transformações da existência; Ele é a austeridade, o sacrifício e o sacrificante; Ele é o antigo Homem cósmico (Virāṭ) que sustenta a ordem do mundo.
अर्जुन उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse identifies the supreme divine principle as the ultimate source and end of all worlds—creation and dissolution occur through him. By calling him Aniruddha (‘unobstructed’), it emphasizes an irresistible, all-pervading sovereignty in which ritual (tapas, yajña) and the agent of ritual ultimately culminate.
Arjuna speaks in a devotional-philosophical register, praising and defining the deity by cosmic functions—origin and dissolution of the worlds—thereby framing the discussion in Śānti Parva around ultimate reality and the grounding of dharma in the supreme being.