Shloka 36
धर्मस्य बहुद्वारत्वम् — Nārada’s Audience with Indra (Śānti-parva 340)
न च जीवं विना ब्रह्मन् वायवश्रैष्टयन्त्युत । स जीव: परिसंख्यात: शेष: संकर्षण: प्रभु:,“ब्रह्मम! जीवके बिना प्राणवायु चेष्टा नहीं करती। वह जीव ही शेष या भगवान् संकर्षण कहा गया है
na ca jīvaṃ vinā brahman vāyavaś ceṣṭayanti uta | sa jīvaḥ parisaṅkhyātaḥ śeṣaḥ saṅkarṣaṇaḥ prabhuḥ ||
ภีษมะกล่าวว่า “โอ้พราหมณ์ หากปราศจากชีวะแล้ว แม้ลมปราณก็ไม่อาจเริ่มการทำงานได้. ชีวะนั้นเองถูกกล่าวว่าเป็น ‘เศษะ’ คือองค์พระสังกรษณะผู้เป็นเจ้า.”
भीष्म उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse asserts the primacy of the jīva: the vital airs (prāṇas) do not function independently but operate in dependence on the living self. It further elevates this life-principle by identifying it with Śeṣa/Saṅkarṣaṇa, suggesting a divine ground that sustains embodied life.
In Śānti Parva’s instruction, Bhīṣma continues his philosophical teaching to a Brahmin interlocutor, explaining how life and bodily functions relate—linking physiological activity (the prāṇas) to the deeper metaphysical principle (jīva), and framing that principle in devotional-cosmological terms as Śeṣa/Saṅkarṣaṇa.