Shloka 5
जनक-राज्ञः मौण्ड्य-परिव्रज्या-विवादः
Janaka’s Renunciation Questioned; Discourse on Dāna and Detachment
त॑ ददर्श प्रिया भार्या भैक्ष्यवृत्तिमकिंचनम् । धानामुष्टिमुपासीनं निरीहं गतमत्सरम्
taṁ dadarśa priyā bhāryā bhaikṣya-vṛttim akiñcanam | dhānā-muṣṭim upāsīnaṁ nirīhaṁ gata-matsaram ||
Then his beloved wife saw him—living on alms, owning nothing, seated with only a handful of parched grain, free from restless striving, and having cast off envy. The scene holds up an ethical ideal of contentment and inner cleansing: renunciation not as display, but as simplicity, restraint, and freedom from rivalry toward others.
अजुन उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse presents an ethical portrait of inner renunciation: living simply on alms, owning nothing, being free from anxious striving, and abandoning envy. It implies that true restraint is measured by mental purity (nirīhatā, amātsarya) as much as by external poverty.
A wife observes her husband in an austere condition—subsisting on alms, seated with only a handful of parched grain, calm and unresentful. The description frames him as a person who has turned away from competitive worldly life and cultivated equanimity.