Shloka 7
Bhīṣma’s Hymn to Viṣṇu and Kṛṣṇa’s Criteria for Divine Self-Disclosure
दिवं ते शिरसा व्याप्तं पद्धयां देवी वसुन्धरा । दिशो भुजा रविश्वक्षुवीर्ये शुक्र: प्रतिष्ठित:
divaṃ te śirasā vyāptaṃ pṛthivyāṃ devī vasundharā | diśo bhujā raviś cakṣuḥ vīrye śukraḥ pratiṣṭhitaḥ ||
毗湿摩说道：“诸天铺展于你之首上，大地女神伐孙陀罗（Vasundharā）延展于你之足下。四方为你之臂，太阳为你之眼，而舒克罗（Śukra）安立于你之精力与生命威能（vīrya）之中。”
भीष्म उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse teaches a vision of rulership and personhood aligned with cosmic dharma: the ideal being (often a king or exalted figure) is praised as embodying the world’s structure—heaven above, earth below, directions as arms, sun as eye—suggesting that ethical authority must uphold and mirror the sustaining order of the universe.
Bhīṣma is speaking in Śānti Parva and offers a lofty, cosmological praise (a universal-form style description) of the person addressed, mapping cosmic elements onto that figure’s body to emphasize grandeur, legitimacy, and the responsibility to maintain dharma.