Shloka 6
जनक–पराशर संवादः — वर्ण-गोत्र-धर्मविचारः
Janaka–Parāśara: Varṇa, Gotra, and Dharma Inquiry
प्रसारयित्वेहाड़्ननि कूर्म: संहरते यथा । तद्धद् भूतानि भूतानामल्पीयांसि स्थवीयसाम्
bhīṣma uvāca | prasārayitvehāṅgāni kūrmaḥ saṃharate yathā | tadvad bhūtāni bhūtānām alpīyāṃsi sthavīyasām |
毗湿摩说道：“如龟在此伸出四肢，复又收回；如是，一切众生之身皆由五大而起——以空为始——并在时至之际复归而融入彼五大。于是微细者归摄于粗大者，有身之生被见为显现与回收之轮回。”
भीष्म उवाच
Educational Q&A
Embodied forms are temporary configurations of the five great elements; they arise from those elements and ultimately dissolve back into them. The tortoise metaphor illustrates expansion into manifestation and withdrawal into reabsorption, encouraging detachment from the body as a final reality.
In Shanti Parva, Bhishma instructs on philosophical and ethical understanding after the war. Here he uses a vivid natural image—the tortoise extending and withdrawing its limbs—to explain how bodies and material forms emerge from the elemental basis of nature and return to it.