Mahabharata — Shanti Parva, Shloka 13
Śuka’s Guṇa-Transcendence and Vyāsa’s Consolation (शुकगति-वर्णनम्)
राजा तस्या: परं दृष्टवा सौकुमार्य वपुस्तदा | केयं कस्य कुतो वेति बभूवागतविस्मय:
rājā tasyāḥ paraṃ dṛṣṭvā saukumāryaṃ vapus tadā | keyaṃ kasya kuto veti babhūvāgatavismayaḥ ||
ਉਸ ਦੇ ਅਤਿ ਕੋਮਲ ਅਤੇ ਸੁੰਦਰ ਸਰੂਪ ਨੂੰ ਵੇਖ ਕੇ ਰਾਜਾ ਜਨਕ ਅਚੰਭੇ ਨਾਲ ਚਕਿਤ ਹੋ ਗਿਆ ਅਤੇ ਮਨ ਹੀ ਮਨ ਸੋਚਣ ਲੱਗਾ—“ਇਹ ਕੌਣ ਹੈ? ਕਿਸ ਦੀ ਹੈ? ਕਿੱਥੋਂ ਆਈ ਹੈ?”
भीष्म उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse highlights a ruler’s immediate impulse toward careful inquiry when confronted with the extraordinary. Wonder is not treated as mere fascination; it becomes the starting point for discernment—asking identity, affiliation, and origin before forming judgment or taking action.
Bhishma narrates that King Janaka sees a woman of remarkable delicacy and beauty. Overcome with astonishment, Janaka internally questions who she is, whose she is, and where she has come from.