Mahabharata — Vana Parva, Shloka 63

युधिष्ठिरस्य अर्जुनप्रेषण-युक्तिवर्णनम् | Yudhiṣṭhira’s Rationale for Sending Arjuna and Request to Dhaumya

Devanagari script

पुनात्यासप्तमं चैव कुलं भरतसत्तम । यस्त्यजेन्नैमिषे प्राणानुपवासपरायण:

Transliteration

punātya saptamaṃ caiva kulaṃ bharatasattama | yas tyajen naimiṣe prāṇān upavāsaparāyaṇaḥ ||

Translation

古拉斯提耶（Ghūlastya）说道：“噢，婆罗多族中最卓越者！一人能净化并救度其家族乃至第七代。若有人专志斋戒，于奈弥沙舍身，智者皆言：彼将在诸世界中体验喜乐。噢，诸王之最！奈弥沙之圣地渡口恒常不灭，清净无垢，能生功德。”

Word by Word

• {'punāti': 'purifies

• redeems', 'saptamam': 'the seventh (generation/degree)', 'kula': 'family line

• lineage', 'bharata-sattama / bharata-śreṣṭha': 'best among the Bharatas (honorific address)', 'tyajet': 'would abandon

• would give up', 'naimiṣe': 'at Naimiṣa (a sacred place/forest

• Naimiṣāraṇya)', 'prāṇān': 'life-breaths

• life', 'upavāsa': 'fasting

• religious abstinence', 'parāyaṇaḥ': 'wholly devoted

• intent upon', "lokānām sarveṣu (implied by 'sarva-lokeṣu')": 'in all worlds', 'ānanda': 'joy

• bliss', 'manīṣi': 'wise, discerning person

• sage', 'kathanam': 'statement

• authoritative saying', 'tīrtha': 'sacred ford/pilgrimage place', 'nitya': 'eternal

• ever-present', 'pavitra': 'pure

• purifying', 'puṇya-janaka': 'merit-producing

Speaker

घुलस्त्य उवाच

Characters & Entities

• Ghūlastya
• Bharata (as a dynastic epithet)
• Naimiṣa (Naimiṣāraṇya)
• tīrtha (sacred pilgrimage place)

Educational Q&A

What is the core teaching?

The verse teaches that intense religious austerity at a supremely sacred place—here, fasting and even relinquishing life at Naimiṣa—generates extraordinary purifying merit, benefiting not only the practitioner but also their lineage up to seven generations, and leading to blissful states in the afterlife.

What is happening in the narrative?

A speaker named Ghūlastya praises the sanctity of Naimiṣa, describing its enduring purity and the exceptional spiritual fruit gained by one who undertakes fasting there, even to the point of death, as affirmed by wise authorities.