Shloka 158
Adhyāya 284: Tapas as a Corrective to Household Attachment
Parāśara’s Instruction
विश्वकृद् विश्वकृतां वरेण्यस्त्वं विश्ववाहो विश्वरूपस्तेजस्वी विश्वतोमुख: । चन्द्रादित्यौ चक्षुषी ते हृदयं च पितामह:
viśvakṛd viśvakṛtāṁ vareṇyas tvaṁ viśvavāho viśvarūpas tejasvī viśvatomukhaḥ | candrādityau cakṣuṣī te hṛdayaṁ ca pitāmahaḥ ||
毗湿摩说道：你是宇宙的造作者，是诸多塑造乾坤者中最卓越者。你承担世界之重；你以宇宙为形——光辉灿然，面向四方。月与日为你的双眼，祖父梵天为你的心。此赞颂之歌所示之教，在于以洞见为根的虔敬：至上者并非遥远的神祇，而是世界自身的结构与觉知；一切众生与宇宙诸力皆在他之中生起并运转，故当受礼敬。
भीष्म उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse teaches a devotional-metaphysical vision: the Supreme is the cosmic person whose body is the universe itself. Recognizing the Sun and Moon as His eyes and Brahmā as His heart frames all cosmic functions as expressions of one divine reality, encouraging reverence, humility, and dharmic living grounded in the awareness of divine immanence.
In Śānti Parva, Bhīṣma instructs and consoles Yudhiṣṭhira after the war. Here Bhīṣma offers a stuti (hymn of praise) describing the Lord’s all-pervading cosmic form, using grand identifications (Sun/Moon as eyes, Brahmā as heart) to convey the deity’s supremacy and omnipresence.