Shloka 4

Vānaprastha-dharma and Tapas: Śiva–Umā Saṃvāda

Forest-Stage Discipline and Austerity

Devanagari script

भीष्म उवाच शृणुष्वावहितो राजन्‌ धर्मगुह्दानि भारत । यथा हि भगवान्‌ व्यास: पुरा कथितवान्‌ मयि

Transliteration

bhīṣma uvāca śṛṇuṣvāvahito rājan dharma-gūḍhāni bhārata | yathā hi bhagavān vyāsaḥ purā kathitavān mayi ||

Translation

بھیشم نے کہا— اے راجَن، اے بھارت کُل کے نندن! پوری توجہ سے سنو۔ میں دھرم کے پوشیدہ لطائف اسی طرح بیان کرتا ہوں جیسے قدیم زمانے میں بھگوان ویاس نے مجھے بتائے تھے۔

Word by Word

• {'bhīṣma uvāca': 'Bhishma said', 'śṛṇuṣva': 'listen (imperative, 2nd person singular)', 'āvahitaḥ': 'attentive, composed, fully focused', 'rājan': 'O king (address)', 'dharma-gūḍhāni': 'the concealed/secret (subtle) aspects of dharma', 'bhārata': 'O Bharata (descendant of Bharata

• address to the Kuru king)', 'yathā hi': 'just as, in the manner that', 'bhagavān': 'venerable, revered

• holy one', 'vyāsaḥ': 'Vyasa (Krishna Dvaipayana), the sage', 'purā': 'formerly, long ago', 'kathitavān': 'told, narrated, taught', 'mayi': 'to me (locative with sense of ‘in my case’/‘unto me’)'}

Speaker

भीष्म उवाच

Characters & Entities

• Bhishma
• Vyasa
• the King (Yudhishthira, implied by context)
• Bharata lineage (Bharata/Kuru dynasty, implied by address)

Educational Q&A

What is the core teaching?

That dharma has subtle, ‘hidden’ dimensions requiring careful attention and authoritative guidance; Bhishma frames his instruction as a faithful transmission of Vyasa’s earlier teaching.

What is happening in the narrative?

Bhishma begins a didactic section addressed to the king, asking him to listen attentively as he introduces a discourse on profound principles of dharma learned from Vyasa in the past.