Mahabharata — Shanti Parva, Shloka 11
अव्यक्त-प्रबोधः (Awakening to the Unmanifest): The 25th and 26th Principles and Eligibility for Brahma-vidyā
यत्र तत्र कथं जाता: स्वयोनिं मुनयो गता: । शुद्धयोनौ समुत्पन्ना वियोनौ च तथा परे
yatra tatra kathaṁ jātāḥ svayoniṁ munayo gatāḥ | śuddhayonau samutpannā viyonau ca tathā pare ||
जनक ने पूछा—जो मुनि कहीं-तहीं जन्म लेते हैं, वे अपनी उचित आध्यात्मिक परम्परा में कैसे प्रतिष्ठित हुए? जो शुद्ध योनियों में उत्पन्न हुए और जो विपरीत/अनियमित योनियों में जन्मे—वे सब ब्राह्मणत्व को किस प्रकार प्राप्त हुए?
जनक उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse frames a dharmic inquiry: if sages can arise from varied births, then Brahminhood cannot be reduced to mere birth; it must be connected to inner purification—truthfulness, self-control, austerity, learning, and realization—through which one ‘attains’ the rightful spiritual status.
King Janaka, in a dialogue on dharma in the Śānti Parva, challenges a simplistic birth-based view of varna by asking how ṛṣis and munis born in both ‘approved’ and ‘irregular’ circumstances nevertheless became acknowledged as Brahmins.