Shloka 17
नारद–शुक संवादः
Impermanence, Svabhāva, and Śuka’s Resolve for Yoga
कृत्वा चाध्ययन तेषां शिष्याणां शतमुत्तमम् | विप्रियार्थ सशिष्यस्य मातुलस्य महात्मन:
Yājñavalkya uvāca | kṛtvā cādhyayanaṃ teṣāṃ śiṣyāṇāṃ śatam uttamam | vipriyārthaṃ saśiṣyasya mātulasya mahātmanaḥ, mahārāja! | tad-anantaraṃ mayā śatam uttama-śiṣyān śatapathasya adhyayanaṃ kāritam | tataḥ śiṣya-sahitaṃ svam mahāmanasvinaṃ mātulaṃ (yaḥ pūrvaṃ māṃ tiraskṛtavān) apriyaṃ kartum kiraṇaiḥ prakāśamānasya sūryasya iva śiṣyaiḥ suśobhitaḥ san tava pituḥ mahātmanaḥ rājñaḥ janakasya yajñasya anuṣṭhānaṃ kāritavān |
Yājñavalkya said: “Having completed the instruction of those disciples—an excellent hundred in number—O king, I then sought to displease my great-souled maternal uncle, who had earlier slighted me, even though he was surrounded by his own pupils. After teaching my hundred foremost students the Śatapatha, I went, adorned by disciples like the sun shining with its rays, and caused the sacrificial rite of your father, the noble King Janaka, to be performed.”
याज़्ञवल्क्य उवाच
Educational Q&A
The passage highlights how spiritual authority is grounded in disciplined learning and successful transmission of Vedic knowledge, yet it also warns ethically about letting scholarship become a tool for personal rivalry or retaliation. True dharma requires mastery joined with restraint and right intention.
Yājñavalkya recounts that after training a hundred excellent disciples and having them study the Śatapatha, he went—surrounded by those disciples—to King Janaka’s sacrificial rite and had it performed. He frames this public display of learning and influence as a way to affront his maternal uncle who had previously insulted him.