Shloka 20

Devanagari script

शुक उवाच उत्पन्ने ज्ञानविज्ञाने निर्दच्धे हदि शाश्वते । किमवश्यं निवस्तव्यमाश्रमेषु भवेत्‌ त्रिषु,शुकदेवजीने पूछा--राजन्‌! यदि किसीके हृदयमें ब्रह्मचर्य-आश्रममें ही सनातन ज्ञान-विज्ञान प्रकट हो जाय और हृदयके राग-द्वेष आदि द्वन्द्ध दूर हो जायँ तो भी क्या उसके लिये शेष तीन आश्रमोंमें रहना आवश्यक है?

Transliteration

śuka uvāca utpanne jñāna-vijñāne nirdagdhe hṛdi śāśvate | kim avaśyaṃ nivastavyam āśrameṣu bhavet triṣu ||

Translation

Śuka said: “O King, if in the very stage of brahmacarya one’s eternal knowledge and realized wisdom (jñāna-vijñāna) have arisen, and the heart’s impurities have been burned away, is it still compulsory for such a person to live through the remaining three āśramas?”

Word by Word

• [{'term': 'śuka uvāca', 'definition': 'Śuka said'}, {'term': 'utpanne', 'definition': 'when arisen

• having manifested'}, {'term': 'jñāna', 'definition': 'knowledge (especially of truth/ātman)'}, {'term': 'vijñāna', 'definition': 'realized/experiential knowledge

• discriminative insight'}, {'term': 'nirdagdhe', 'definition': 'burned up, consumed (by the fire of knowledge)'}, {'term': 'hṛdi', 'definition': 'in the heart/mind'}, {'term': 'śāśvate', 'definition': 'eternal, everlasting'}, {'term': 'kim avaśyam', 'definition': 'is it necessary/compulsory?'}, {'term': 'nivastavyam', 'definition': 'to be dwelt in

• to reside/abide'}, {'term': 'āśrameṣu', 'definition': 'in the āśramas (stages of life)'}, {'term': 'triṣu', 'definition': 'in the three (i.e., the remaining three after brahmacarya)'}]

Speaker

शुक उवाच

Characters & Entities

• Śuka
• King (addressed interlocutor)
• Āśramas (brahmacarya and the remaining three)

Educational Q&A

What is the core teaching?

The verse frames a dharma-question: if liberating knowledge and inner purification arise already in brahmacarya, must one still obligatorily pass through the remaining life-stages (gṛhastha, vānaprastha, sannyāsa), or can realization itself authorize a different course.

What is happening in the narrative?

Śuka addresses the King and poses a pointed inquiry about the necessity of following the sequential āśrama system when a seeker has already attained mature knowledge and burned away inner defilements.