Narada Purana — Purva Bhaga, Shloka 50
Janaka’s Quest for Liberation; Pañcaśikha’s Sāṅkhya on Renunciation, Elements, Guṇas, and the Deathless State
जनक उवाच । भगवन्यदि न प्रेत्य संज्ञा भवति कस्यचित् । एवं सति किमज्ञानं ज्ञानं वा किं करिष्यति ॥ ५० ॥
janaka uvāca | bhagavanyadi na pretya saṃjñā bhavati kasyacit | evaṃ sati kimajñānaṃ jñānaṃ vā kiṃ kariṣyati || 50 ||
Vua Janaka thưa: “Bạch Đấng Thế Tôn, nếu sau khi chết không ai còn giữ được sự tỉnh thức nào, thì vô minh hay trí tuệ có khác gì? Cả hai sẽ làm được điều chi?”
Janaka
Vrata: none
Primary Rasa: shanta
Secondary Rasa: adbhuta
FAQs
It challenges a nihilistic view of death by asking: if there is no post-mortem awareness, then spiritual striving becomes meaningless—prompting the teaching that true knowledge concerns the enduring Self (ātman) and liberation (mokṣa).
Indirectly, it sets up the need for a lasting spiritual reality; bhakti is meaningful because the soul’s relationship with the Divine (often framed as Vishnu/Narayana in Moksha-dharma contexts) is not destroyed by death.
No specific Vedanga (such as Vyākaraṇa, Jyotiṣa, or Kalpa) is taught in this verse; it is primarily a mokṣa-śāstra question about consciousness (saṃjñā) and the value of jñāna.