Shloka 1
Śuka’s Guṇa-Transcendence and Vyāsa’s Consolation (शुकगति-वर्णनम्)
अपन बछ। ] अफण का: विशत्यवथिकत्रेशततमोब् ध्याय: राजा जनककी परीक्षा करनेके लिये आयी हुई सुलभाका उनके शरीरमें प्रवेश करना
Yudhiṣṭhira uvāca: aparityajya gārhasthyaṁ kururājarṣi-sattama | kaḥ prāpto vinayaṁ buddhvā mokṣa-tattvaṁ vadasva me ||
Yudhiṣṭhira said: “O foremost of royal sages of the Kuru line! Without abandoning the householder’s way of life, who has attained that state in which the mind becomes stilled and disciplined, and thereby realized the truth of liberation? Tell me that principle of mokṣa.”
युधिछिर उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse frames a key Śānti Parva inquiry: whether liberation (mokṣa) and the stilling of the mind can be realized while remaining a householder. It highlights that mokṣa is tied to inner discipline and understanding, not merely to an external change of social status.
Yudhiṣṭhira addresses a revered royal sage of the Kuru line and asks for an example and explanation: who has attained liberation without giving up household life, and what is the true principle of mokṣa that makes such attainment possible.