Shloka 35

Śuka’s Guṇa-Transcendence and Vyāsa’s Consolation (शुकगति-वर्णनम्)

Devanagari script

नाभिरज्यति कसम्िमेंक्षिन्नानर्थे न परिग्रहे । नाभिरज्यति चैतेषु व्यर्थत्वादू रागरोषयो:

Transliteration

janaka uvāca | nābhirajyati kasmiṁścin nānarthe na parigrahe | nābhirajyati caiteṣu vyarthatvād rāgaroṣayoḥ ||

Translation

阇那迦王说道：“我的心不执著于任何事物——既不执著于无益而有害之事，也不执著于聚敛财物。它亦不趋向贪欲与嗔怒这些冲动，因为我见欲与怒皆为空虚无实、毫无真价值。”

Word by Word

• [{'term': 'nābhirajyati', 'definition': 'does not become attached

• is not enamored'}, {'term': 'kasmiṁścit', 'definition': 'in anything whatsoever

• in any matter'}, {'term': 'anarthe', 'definition': 'in what is non-beneficial, purposeless, harmful, or leading to misfortune'}, {'term': 'parigrahe', 'definition': 'acquisition, grasping, hoarding

• possession/accumulation'}, {'term': 'ca', 'definition': 'and

• also'}, {'term': 'eteṣu', 'definition': 'in these (things/impulses)'}, {'term': 'vyarthatvāt', 'definition': 'because of futility/emptiness

• due to being pointless'}, {'term': 'rāga', 'definition': 'attachment, passion, infatuation

• emotional coloring that binds'}, {'term': 'roṣa', 'definition': 'anger, wrath, irritation'}, {'term': 'rāgaroṣayoḥ', 'definition': 'of attachment and anger (dual genitive)'}]

Speaker

जनक उवाच

Characters & Entities

• Janaka

Educational Q&A

What is the core teaching?

Janaka teaches vairāgya (non-attachment): the wise do not cling to harmful aims or to accumulation, and they refuse to be driven by rāga (passion) and roṣa (anger), recognizing these emotions as ultimately futile and ethically unproductive.

What is happening in the narrative?

In the Śānti Parva’s discourse on peace and right conduct, King Janaka speaks as a model of inner renunciation while living as a ruler, describing how his intellect remains unentangled from possessions and from the reactive emotions of desire and anger.