Shloka 44
Śuka’s Guṇa-Transcendence and Vyāsa’s Consolation (शुकगति-वर्णनम्)
दोषदर्शी तु गार्हस्थ्ये यो व्रजत्या श्रमान्तरे । उत्सृजन् परिगृह्नंश्व॒ सोडपि सड्भान्न मुच्यते
doṣadarśī tu gārhasthye yo vrajaty āśramāntare | utsṛjan parigṛhṇaṃś ca so 'pi saṅgān na mucyate ||
Janaka said: Even if a man, finding faults in the householder’s life, abandons it and goes to another stage of life, he still both relinquishes something and takes up something else; therefore, he too is not freed from the defect of attachment. The teaching is that mere change of external station does not by itself end clinging—inner non-attachment is required.
जनक उवाच
Educational Q&A
Renunciation is not accomplished merely by leaving the householder life; as long as one continues to abandon some things and grasp others, attachment persists. Freedom comes from inner non-clinging rather than external relocation.
King Janaka is speaking in a didactic context in the Śānti Parva, critiquing superficial renunciation: a person who condemns gṛhastha and shifts to another āśrama still remains bound by saṅga because the mind continues the pattern of giving up and taking up.