Shloka 116

Devanagari script

प्रमाणं प्राणनिलय: प्राणभृत्‌ प्राणजीवन: । तत्त्वं तत्त्वविदेकात्मा जन्ममृत्युजरातिग:

Transliteration

bhīṣma uvāca | pramāṇaṁ prāṇanilayaḥ prāṇabhṛt prāṇajīvanaḥ | tattvaṁ tattvavidekātmā janmamṛtyujarātigaḥ ||

Translation

毗湿摩说道：祂是自证的真理尺度与权威；是诸生命气息之所依；是万般生命力之养护者；以普拉那（prāṇa）的运行使众生得以存活。祂即真实本身，亦是真实的知者；祂独一无二，无有第二；并全然超越身躯之相——生、死与老。

Word by Word

• प्रमाणम्: the (self-valid) authority/standard of knowledge
• प्रमाणम्: Karta
• Type: Noun
• Root: प्रमाण
• Form: Neuter, Nominative, Singular

• प्राणनिलयः: abode/support of the vital breaths
• प्राणनिलयः: Karta
• Type: Noun
• Root: प्राणनिलय
• Form: Masculine, Nominative, Singular

• प्राणभृत्: sustainer/nourisher of the vital breaths
• प्राणभृत्: Karta
• Type: Noun
• Root: प्राणभृत्
• Form: Masculine, Nominative, Singular

• प्राणजीवनः: life (source) of beings through prāṇa
• प्राणजीवनः: Karta
• Type: Noun
• Root: प्राणजीवन
• Form: Masculine, Nominative, Singular

• तत्त्वम्: reality/true principle
• तत्त्वम्: Karta
• Type: Noun
• Root: तत्त्व
• Form: Neuter, Nominative, Singular

• तत्त्ववित्: knower of reality
• तत्त्ववित्: Karta
• Type: Noun
• Root: तत्त्वविद्
• Form: Masculine, Nominative, Singular

• एकात्मा: one-souled; non-dual self
• एकात्मा: Karta
• Type: Noun
• Root: एकात्मन्
• Form: Masculine, Nominative, Singular

• जन्ममृत्युजरातिगः: one who has transcended birth, death, and old age
• जन्ममृत्युजरातिगः: Karta
• Type: Noun
• Root: जन्ममृत्युजरातिग
• Form: Masculine, Nominative, Singular

Speaker

भीष्म उवाच

Characters & Entities

• Bhīṣma

Educational Q&A

What is the core teaching?

The verse praises the Supreme principle as self-validating truth, the foundation and sustainer of life-breath, identical with ultimate Reality, and non-dual—transcending the bodily cycle of birth, death, and aging. Ethically, it redirects attention from transient bodily states to the imperishable ground of life and knowledge.

What is happening in the narrative?

In the Anuśāsana Parva, Bhīṣma continues his instruction by describing the divine/ultimate reality through a litany of epithets. This verse functions as a devotional-philosophical characterization of the Supreme as the support of prāṇa and as beyond mortality.