Shloka 2
अव्यक्त–प्रकृति–इन्द्रियविचारः
The Unmanifest, Prakṛtis, and the Sense-Complex
जनक उवाच कि श्रेय: का गतिर्ब्रह्मन् कि कृतं न विनश्यति । क्व गतो न निवर्तेत तन्मे ब्रूहि महामते
Janaka uvāca: kiṁ śreyaḥ? kā gatir brahman? kiṁ kṛtaṁ na vinaśyati? kva gato na nivarteta? tan me brūhi mahāmate.
Janaka said: “O Brahmin, what is the true means to the highest good? What is the supreme destination? What deed, once done, does not perish? And to what state does one go, having reached which one does not return to this world? O great-minded one, tell me the answers to these questions.”
जनक उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse frames the central soteriological inquiry of the Śānti Parva: identifying śreyas (the highest good), the supreme gati (final goal), the kind of action whose fruit is imperishable, and the state of liberation from which there is no return to saṁsāra.
King Janaka, portrayed as a philosophically inclined ruler, respectfully questions a learned Brahmin-sage, seeking guidance on ultimate welfare, enduring merit, and the liberating destination beyond rebirth.