Text 26]
Bhīṣma's Passing Away
469
Bhīṣmadeva. This is all due to the arrangement of the great wheel-carrier Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa, who establishes the glories of His devotee. The father likes to see the son become more famous than himself. The Lord declares very emphatically that worship of His devotee is more valuable than the worship of the Lord Himself.
TEXT 26
पुरुषस्वभावविहितान् यथावर्णं यथाश्रमम् । वैराग्यरागोपाधिभ्यामास्नातोभयलक्षणान् ॥२६॥
puruṣa-svabhāva-vihitān yathā-varṇam yathāśramam vairāgya-rāgopādhibh yām āmnātobhaya-lakṣaṇān
puruṣa —the human being;  svabhāva —by his own acquired qualities;  vihitān —prescribed;  yathā —as it is;  varṇam —classification of castes;  yathā —as it is;  āśramam —orders of life;  vairāgya —detachment;  rāga —attachment;  upādhibhyām —out of such designations;  āmnāta —systematically;  ubhaya —both;  lakṣaṇān —symptoms.
TRANSLATION
At Mahārāja Yudhiṣṭhira's inquiry, Bhīṣmadeva first of all defined all the classifications of castes and orders of life in terms of the individual's qualifications. Then he systematically, in twofold divisions, described counteraction by detachment and interaction by attachment.
PURPORT
The conception of four castes and four orders of life, as planned by the Lord Himself (Bg. 4.13) is to accelerate transcendental qualities of the individual person so that he may gradually realize his spiritual identification and thus act accordingly to get free from material bondage or conditional life. In almost all the  Purāṇas  the subject matter is described in the same spirit, and so also in the  Mahābhārata —it is more elaborately described by Bhīṣmadeva in the  Śānti-parva  beginning from the Sixtieth Chapter.
The  varṇāśrama-dharma  is prescribed for the civilized human being just to train him to successfully terminate human life. Self-realization is