Shloka 8
Śuka’s Manifestation from the Araṇi (Āraṇeya-janma) — शुकजन्म (आरणेय-सम्भव)
चतुरश्नापरान् पुत्रान् देहात् पूर्व महानृषि: । ते वै पितृणां पितर: श्रूयन्ते राजसत्तम
caturaś cāparān putrān dehāt pūrvaṁ mahān ṛṣiḥ | te vai pitṝṇāṁ pitaraḥ śrūyante rājasattama ||
याज्ञवल्क्य उवाच—स महानृषिर्देहस्योत्पत्तेः पूर्वमेव चत्वारोऽन्यान् पुत्रान् ससर्ज। राजसत्तम, ते चत्वारः ‘पितॄणामपि पितरः’ इति श्रूयन्ते—परम्परासृष्टेः आद्याः कारणभूताः प्रजापतय इव।
याज़्ञवल्क्य उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse frames creation as proceeding from subtle, pre-physical origins: before embodied forms arise, primordial progenitors are produced, and these stand behind later ancestral and elemental lineages. It emphasizes a hierarchical causality—subtle principles precede and generate the gross.
Yājñavalkya addresses a king and recounts a traditional account of early creation: a great seer produced four ‘sons’ prior to physical embodiment, and these are described as the progenitors even of the Pitṛs, indicating an origin prior to later cosmic generations.