Shloka 6

Udyoga-parva Adhyāya 69: Dhṛtarāṣṭra’s Reverential Address to Sañjaya on Vāsudeva

Devanagari script

पुण्डरीकं परं धाम नित्यमक्षयमव्ययम्‌ । तद्धभावात्‌ पुण्डरीकाक्षो दस्युत्रासाज्जनार्दन:

Transliteration

puṇḍarīkaṃ paraṃ dhāma nityam akṣayam avyayam | taddhabhāvāt puṇḍarīkākṣo dasyutrāsāj janārdanaḥ ||

Translation

三阇耶说道：“‘芬陀利迦（Puṇḍarīka）’乃至上之所——常住、不坏、不朽。因其本体安立于此真实，故名‘芬陀利迦眼（Puṇḍarīkākṣa）’；又因他令无法之徒战栗并加以降伏，故名‘阇那尔陀那（Janārdana）’。”

Word by Word

पुण्डरीकम्the lotus (white lotus)

परम्supreme

धामabode; splendor

नित्यम्eternal; constant

अक्षयम्imperishable

अव्ययम्unchanging; undecaying

तत्from that

भावात्from (its) nature/being; because of (that) state

पुण्डरीकाक्षःthe lotus-eyed one (Vishnu/Krishna)

दस्युत्रासात्from the terror of robbers/outlaws; because of (his) frightening of dasyus

जनार्दनःJanardana (Vishnu/Krishna)

Speaker

संजय उवाच

Characters & Entities

Sañjaya

Puṇḍarīka

Puṇḍarīkākṣa

Janārdana

Character Dynamics

Dharma Sankata (Moral Dilemma)

War Context

Verse Rasa (Emotional Essence)

Philosophical Teaching

Political Layer

Geographic Context

Meter (Chandas)

Sandhi Notes

Educational Q&A

What is the core teaching?

The verse links divine names to ethical function: the Lord is ‘lotus-eyed’ due to his pure, supreme, imperishable nature, and ‘Janārdana’ because he restrains the lawless—upholding dharma by protecting society from predatory violence.

What is happening in the narrative?

Sañjaya is describing and praising Kṛṣṇa through etymological explanations of his epithets, emphasizing his transcendent nature and his role as a force that checks wrongdoing in the tense pre-war context of the Udyoga Parva.