Shloka 59
Adhyāya 90: Babhruvāhana’s Reception and the Commencement of Yudhiṣṭhira’s Aśvamedha
प्राणधारणमात्रेण शकक्यं कर्तु तपस्त्वया । प्राणो हि परमो धर्म: स्थितो देहेषु देहिनाम्,प्राणधारणमात्रसे आप तप कर सकते हैं। देहधारियोंके शरीरोंमें स्थित हुआ प्राण ही परम धर्म है
prāṇadhāraṇamātreṇa śakyaṃ kartuṃ tapas tvayā | prāṇo hi paramo dharmaḥ sthito deheṣu dehinām ||
Người con nói: “Chỉ cần giữ gìn hơi thở sinh mệnh, cha cũng có thể thực hành khổ hạnh. Vì chính sinh khí—ngự trong thân thể của mọi hữu tình—là pháp (dharma) tối thượng.”
पुत्र उवाच
Educational Q&A
Preserving one’s life-breath is presented as the highest dharma, because all duties and spiritual practices (including tapas) depend upon being alive; sustaining prāṇa is thus the foundational ethical obligation.
A son addresses someone engaged in or considering austerity, emphasizing that even the basic act of maintaining the life-breath counts as a meaningful discipline and that prāṇa, present in all embodied beings, is paramount.