Shloka 7

अध्याय २५६ — श्रद्धा, अहिंसा, स्पर्धा-त्यागः

Tūlādhāra–Jājali: Faith, Non-harm, and Renunciation of Rivalry

Devanagari script

पल्वलानि च सर्वाणि सर्व चैव तृणोपलम्‌ । स्थावरं जड़म॑ चैव भूतग्रामं चतुर्विधम्‌

Transliteration

palvalāni ca sarvāṇi sarvaṃ caiva tṛṇopalām | sthāvaraṃ jaḍaṃ caiva bhūtagrāmaṃ caturvidham ||

Translation

那罗陀说道：“一切池沼水泽，乃至诸草木藤蔓；一切不动无知之物，以及四类众生——无不正在化为灰烬。世界的坏劫已然降临。噢，具福者，请垂慈悯。噢，圣者，这便是我向你所求之愿。”

Word by Word

• [{'term': 'palvala', 'meaning': 'pond, pool, small lake

• a water-reservoir'}, {'term': 'sarvāṇi / sarvam', 'meaning': 'all, everything'}, {'term': 'tṛṇa', 'meaning': 'grass, straw'}, {'term': 'upala', 'meaning': 'stone, pebble

• (by extension) inert matter'}, {'term': 'sthāvara', 'meaning': 'immovable beings/things

• the stationary creation (plants, mountains, etc.)'}, {'term': 'jaḍa', 'meaning': 'inert, insentient, non-conscious'}, {'term': 'bhūtagrāma', 'meaning': 'the aggregate/community of beings

• the totality of creatures'}, {'term': 'caturvidha', 'meaning': 'fourfold

• of four kinds'}, {'term': 'pralaya', 'meaning': 'cosmic dissolution

• the collapse of the manifested world-order'}, {'term': 'vara', 'meaning': 'boon, requested gift (often from an ascetic or deity)'}]

Speaker

नारद उवाच

Characters & Entities

• Nārada
• Bhagavān (addressed deity/sage)
• palvala (ponds/pools)
• tṛṇa (grasses)
• latā-vallī (creepers/vines, implied by context)
• bhūtagrāma (community of beings)
• caturvidha-jīva (fourfold living beings: svedaja, aṇḍaja, udbhijja, jarāyuja—per Gita Press gloss)

Educational Q&A

What is the core teaching?

The verse underscores impermanence: even the entire created order—water-bodies, vegetation, inert matter, and all classes of living beings—can be consumed in dissolution. Ethically, it pushes the listener toward detachment from transient forms and toward seeking refuge/boons from the truly enduring (dharma, tapas, the divine).

What is happening in the narrative?

Nārada describes a scene of cosmic destruction where all elements of the world are being burned to ashes, indicating that pralaya has arrived. In that crisis, he addresses a revered ‘Bhagavān’/holy one and states the boon he wishes to request, framing the moment as a solemn petition amid dissolution.