Shloka 26
अश्वशिरो-आख्यानम्
Aśvaśiras / Hayaśiras Narrative: Retrieval of the Vedas
प्रतिछतितं भूतभव्यं त्वयि सर्वमिदं जगत् | चत्वारो ह्ाश्रमा देव सर्वे गार्हस्थ्यमूलका:
praticchaditaṁ bhūtabhavyam tvayi sarvam idaṁ jagat | catvāro hy āśramā deva sarve gārhasthyamūlakāḥ ||
那罗陀说道：“神圣者啊，这整个世界——过去与未来——都含摄于你，并为你所周遍。四住期（四种人生阶段）也都以居家者之道为根本。”
नारद उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse affirms that the four āśramas are sustained by gārhasthya (householder life): through livelihood, hospitality, charity, and support of students, forest-dwellers, and renunciants, the householder becomes the practical foundation of the wider dharmic system.
Nārada addresses a divine interlocutor, praising them as the locus in which the whole cosmos—past and future—is held, and then pivots to a dharma instruction: emphasizing the centrality of the householder stage within the framework of the four āśramas.