Shloka 32

Adhyāya 180: Jīva, Śarīra, and the Fire Analogy (भृगु–भरद्वाज संवादः)

Devanagari script

अनियतशयनासन: प्रकृत्या दमनियमव्रतसत्यशौचयुक्त: । अपगतफलसंचय: प्रह्ृष्टो व्रतमिदमाजगरं शुचिश्चरामि

Transliteration

aniyata-śayanāsanaḥ prakṛtyā dama-niyama-vrata-satya-śauca-yuktaḥ | apagata-phala-saṃcayaḥ prahṛṣṭo vratam idam ājagaraṃ śuciś carāmi ||

Translation

毗湿摩说道：“我无固定卧处与坐处。就本性而言，我具足自制（dama）、戒行（niyama）、诸誓、真实与清净。业果的积聚已从我身上消散。我以欢喜与净心修持‘蟒蛇之誓’（ājagara-vrata），不以焦虑之力强求，也不执著于结果。”

Word by Word

• {'aniyata': 'unfixed, not determined', 'śayana-āsana': 'sleeping and sitting

• resting places/postures', 'prakṛtyā': 'by nature, inherently', 'dama': 'sense-control, self-restraint', 'niyama': 'observance, discipline (inner/outer restraints)', 'vrata': 'vow, religious/ethical discipline', 'satya': 'truthfulness', 'śauca': 'purity, cleanliness (outer and inner)', 'yuktaḥ': 'endowed with, possessed of', 'apagata': 'gone away, removed', 'phala': 'fruit, result (of action)', 'saṃcaya': 'accumulation, store', 'prahṛṣṭaḥ': 'glad, delighted, serene', 'idam': 'this', 'ājagara': 'python

• metaphor for one who remains still, ungrasping, accepting what comes', 'śuciḥ': 'pure, clean, purified', 'carāmi': 'I practice

Speaker

भीष्म उवाच

Characters & Entities

• Bhishma (Bhīṣma)

Educational Q&A

What is the core teaching?

The verse teaches renunciation of attachment to results (phala) through disciplined virtues—self-control (dama), observances (niyama), vows (vrata), truth (satya), and purity (śauca)—culminating in the ājagara-vrata: a life of minimal needs, no fixed comforts, and calm acceptance without acquisitive striving.

What is happening in the narrative?

In Śānti Parva’s instruction on dharma and liberation-oriented conduct, Bhishma describes an ascetic mode of life: he has no settled resting place, lives by inner discipline, and practices the ‘python-vow,’ presenting it as an ideal of contentment and freedom from karmic accumulation.