Shloka 25
भिक्षुलक्षणम्—एकचर्याः, अहिंसा, कैवल्याश्रमः
Marks of the Mendicant: Solitary Wandering, Non-Injury, and the Kaivalya-Discipline
आदइ्यन्ते निधन चैव कर्म चातीत्य सर्वशः । चतुर्विधस्य भूतस्य सर्वस्येशा: स्वयम्भुव:,वे जन्म, मृत्यु और कर्मकी सीमाको भलीभाँति लाँधकर समस्त चतुर्विध प्राणियोंके अधीश्वर एवं स्वयम्भू होते हैं
ādīyante nidhanaṃ caiva karma cātītya sarvaśaḥ | caturvidhasya bhūtasya sarvasyeśāḥ svayambhuvaḥ ||
आदियन्ते निधनं चैव कर्म चातीत्य सर्वशः । चतुर्विधस्य भूतस्य सर्वस्येशाः स्वयम्भुवः ॥
व्यास उवाच
Educational Q&A
True sovereignty is described as transcendence of birth, death, and karmic compulsion; one who has crossed these limits is ‘self-born’ in the sense of being independent of conditioned becoming and thus master over the realm of beings.
In the didactic setting of Śānti Parva, Vyāsa articulates a metaphysical point: certain exalted beings (or the realized state) are portrayed as beyond the ordinary cycle of embodiment and action, and therefore as the overarching ‘lords’ of the fourfold classes of creatures.