Shloka 48
Śuka’s Guṇa-Transcendence and Vyāsa’s Consolation (शुकगति-वर्णनम्)
मेरी तो यह धारणा है कि गेरुआ वस्त्र पहनना, मस्तक मुड़ा लेना तथा त्रिदण्ड और कमण्डलु धारण करना--ये सब उत्कृष्ट संन्यासमार्गका परिचय देनेवाले चिह्नमात्र हैं। इनके द्वारा मोक्षकी सिद्धि नहीं होती ।।
janaka uvāca | yadi saty api liṅgair asmin jñānam evātra kāraṇam | nirmokṣāyeha duḥkhasya liṅgamātraṃ nirarthakam ||
Janaka said: “Even if these outward marks are present, if knowledge alone is truly the cause of complete release here from suffering, then mere external insignia are pointless. The signs of renunciation—ochre robes, a shaven head, the triple staff, and the water-pot—may indicate a path, but liberation is not accomplished by symbols; it is accomplished by insight.”
जनक उवाच
Educational Q&A
Liberation from suffering is achieved by jñāna (true knowledge/realization), not by external ascetic symbols; outward marks may indicate a renunciant’s path but are not themselves the means to mokṣa.
In the Śānti Parva’s discourse on dharma and liberation, King Janaka speaks as a teacher-figure, critiquing reliance on external renunciant emblems and emphasizing inner realization as the decisive means to freedom from duḥkha.