Book 6 · Nirvāṇa I निर्वाण · chapters 52–58 · 7 chapters
Vasishtha narrates to Rama how Vishnu, taking two bodies as Krishna and Arjuna, will teach Arjuna on the battlefield before the war between the Pandavas and Kauravas.
Vasishtha tells Rama a future history. To relieve the earth's burden, Hari will take two bodies: Vasudeva's son Krishna, and the Pandava Arjuna, wielder of the Gandiva bow. Yudhishthira, son of Dharma, will rule the earth, and his cousin Duryodhana will oppose him with Bhima as his enemy; the two armies will clash in eighteen divisions. At first the body named Arjuna will behave as an ordinary man, and seeing his own kinsmen arrayed for death on both sides, he will grieve and refuse to fight. Krishna will then rouse that body to its task, teaching him that the self is never born and never dies, that the wise grieve for neither the living nor the dead, that a man should perform his own duty without attachment to its fruit, offering every action to Brahman, and that one who has burned the seed of desire is not born again into transmigration. Point by point Arjuna's doubts are answered, until he declares his delusion destroyed and his memory regained. Restored and free of doubt, Arjuna rises with his charioteer Krishna to fight, and the passage ends looking ahead to the battle and the river of blood it will produce. The episode closely parallels the Bhagavad Gita, retold here as Vasishtha's own illustration within his teaching to Rama.
सेनाद्वयगतान्दृष्ट्वा स्वजनान्मरणोन्मुखान्विषादमेष्यत्युद्योगं युद्धाय न करिष्यति || ३४ ||
Seeing his own people facing death in both armies, he will feel sorrow and will not prepare for battle.
अपने लोगों को दोनों सेनाओं में मृत्यु का सामना करते देख, वह दुःख महसूस करेगा और युद्ध की तैयारी नहीं करेगा।
न जायते म्रियते वा कदाचिन्नायं भूत्वा भविता वा न भूयःअजो नित्यः शाश्वतोऽयं पुराणो न हन्यते हन्यमाने शरीरे || ३६ ||
The soul is never born nor dies at any time. It does not come into being, does not come to exist again. It is unborn, eternal, ever-existing and primeval. It is not slain when the body is slain.
आत्मा कभी जन्म नहीं लेता है और न ही कभी मरता है। यह कभी अस्तित्व में नहीं आता और न ही फिर से अस्तित्व में आता है। यह अजन्मा, नित्य, शाश्वत और पुराण है। जब शरीर मारा जाता है तो यह नहीं मारा जाता।
इत्युक्त्वोत्थाय गाण्डीवधन्वा स हरिसारथिः | अर्जुनो गतसंदेहो रणलीलां करिष्यति || १६ ||
Having said this, Arjuna, the wielder of the Gandiva bow, rose up with his charioteer Hari (Krishna), free from doubt, and will perform the sport of battle.
ऐसा कहकर गाण्डीव धनुर्धर अर्जुन हरि सारथि के साथ उठे और संदेहरहित होकर रणक्रीड़ा करेंगे।
The story occupies chapters 52–58 of Book 6. Each link opens that chapter complete — Sanskrit in Devanagari and IAST, with a plain English and Hindi translation of every verse. The number under each link is its verse count.