Mahabharata — Udyoga Parva, Shloka 13

Sanatsujāta on the Imperceptible Eternal Light (यत्तच्छुक्रं महज्ज्योतिः)

Devanagari script

अपानं गिरति प्राण: प्राणं गिरति चन्द्रमा: । आदित्यो गिरते चन्द्रमादित्यं गिरते पर: । योगिनस्तं प्रपश्यन्ति भगवन्तं सनातनम्‌

Transliteration

apānaṁ girati prāṇaḥ prāṇaṁ girati candramāḥ | ādityo girate candram ādityaṁ girate paraḥ | yoginas taṁ prapaśyanti bhagavantaṁ sanātanam ||

Translation

Sanatsujāta nói: Apāna được thu nhiếp vào prāṇa; prāṇa được thu nhiếp vào Mặt Trăng; Mặt Trăng được thu nhiếp vào Mặt Trời; và Mặt Trời được thu nhiếp vào Đấng Tối Thượng. Các bậc du-già trực kiến Chúa Tể vĩnh cửu ấy—nền tảng tối hậu nơi mọi năng lực đều quy tụ.

Word by Word

• {'apānam': 'apāna-vāyu

• the downward-moving vital current (often linked with excretion, elimination, and grounding functions)', 'prāṇaḥ': 'prāṇa-vāyu

• the forward/upward vital current (often linked with inhalation and life-force)', 'girati': 'swallows, absorbs, merges into itself', 'candramāḥ': 'the Moon

• also associated with mind and soma in Vedic symbolism', 'ādityaḥ': 'the Sun

• associated with light, vitality, and the cosmic order', 'paraḥ': 'the Supreme, the Transcendent (Paramātman/Brahman)', 'yoginaḥ': 'yogins

• disciplined contemplatives', 'prapaśyanti': 'behold directly, realize, perceive clearly', 'bhagavantam': 'the Blessed Lord

• the divine, possessed of fullness and majesty', 'sanātanam': 'eternal, beginningless, perennial'}

Speaker

सनत्सुजात उवाच

Characters & Entities

• Sanatsujāta
• Apāna
• Prāṇa
• Candramā (Moon)
• Āditya (Sun)
• Para (Supreme Lord/Paramātman)
• Yogins

Educational Q&A

What is the core teaching?

All vital and cosmic functions are presented as progressively absorbed into higher principles, culminating in the Supreme (para). The verse teaches that the ultimate reality is the final locus of dissolution and integration, and that yogic discipline leads to direct realization of that eternal Lord.

What is happening in the narrative?

In the Sanatsujātīya section of the Udyoga Parva, Sanatsujāta instructs Dhṛtarāṣṭra on liberation-oriented wisdom. Here he uses a chain of absorptions—from apāna to prāṇa, to Moon, to Sun, to the Supreme—to illustrate an inner-cosmic hierarchy that yogins can directly perceive.