Shloka 100
Atithi-prāpti and the Brāhmaṇa’s Deliberation on Triadic Dharma (अतिथिप्राप्तिः धर्मत्रयविचारश्च)
स आदि: स मध्य: स चान्त: प्रजानां स धाता स थेयं स कर्ता स कार्यम् | युगान्ते प्रसुप्त: सुसंक्षिप्प लोकान् युगादौ प्रबुद्धो जगद्धयुत्ससर्ज
sa ādiḥ sa madhyaḥ sa cāntaḥ prajānāṃ sa dhātā sa dheyaṃ sa kartā sa kāryam | yugānte prasuptaḥ susaṃkṣipya lokān yugādau prabuddho jagad dhy utsasarja, vai hi bhagavān nārāyaṇaḥ ||
毗耶娑说：唯有他，是一切众生之始、之中、之终。他是维持者，是应证之所归，是作者，亦是所作之业。于劫末之时，他收摄诸世界而入宇宙大眠；于新劫之初，他复苏觉醒，再次化生整个宇宙——诚然，此主即是那罗延（Nārāyaṇa）。
व्यास उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse teaches the all-encompassing sovereignty of Nārāyaṇa: He is simultaneously origin, continuity, and end; both the agent and the objective; and the cosmic power behind dissolution and creation. Ethically, it frames dharma and spiritual striving as oriented toward the divine ground that pervades all action and all outcomes.
Vyāsa is describing the supreme principle (identified as Bhagavān Nārāyaṇa) in cosmic terms—how the Lord withdraws the worlds at the end of an age and recreates them at the beginning of the next—within the Shānti Parva’s broader instruction on peace, right understanding, and ultimate reality.