Śuka and Janaka

After his wonderful birth, Śuka Maharshi studied with Bṛhaspati and with his father Vyāsa Maharshi. Even so, his mind was not satisfied and longed for direct teaching on moksha (liberation). On Vyāsa’s advice he went to Mithilā to ask King Janaka, the king of Videha, whom Vyāsa named as the best knower of the dharma of moksha. In the Nārada Mahā Purāṇa their dialogue covers the duties of a brāhmaṇa in all four āśramas, the nature of true jñāna, and the path to liberation.

Śuka Maharshi was born from Vyāsa Maharshi’s araṇī (fire-stick) through the power of tapas and by Śiva’s grace. At birth the Vedas, with their aṅgas and secrets (rahasyas), came to him by themselves. After that he studied all the Vedas, the Vedāṅgas, the itihāsas, the śāstras and yogaśāstra with Bṛhaspati and Vyāsa. Even with all this learning, his mind found no true peace (śānti) in the āśrama. He thought on the dharma of moksha and went to his father Vyāsa to ask how the mind can truly be made calm.

Vyāsa said to him: “Among all who know the meaning of the dharma of moksha, no one has gone further in understanding than Janaka, the king of Videha. Go to him quickly. He will remove all your doubts, about the path of action (pravṛtti-mārga) and the path of renunciation (nivṛtti-mārga) both.”

(Nārada Mahā Purāṇa, Poorvardha, Chapter 58)

Śuka reaches Mithilā

Śuka came to Mithilā. Janaka Mahārāja heard that Vyāsa’s son had arrived and received him with rare honour. He came out himself with his ministers and the whole women’s quarters (antahpura), and he had his purohita lead the welcome. He offered arghya and pādya (water for the hands and the feet), a fine golden seat and a cow, and he did the worship according to the śāstra. Then he asked why Śuka had come.

(Nārada Mahā Purāṇa, Poorvardha, Chapter 59)

Śuka’s questions

Śuka said to Janaka: “My father Vyāsa has sent me to you. He says you can settle my doubts. I ask you: What should a brāhmaṇa do? What is the true nature (svarūpa) of moksha? Is moksha to be reached by jñāna or by tapas? How exactly is it reached?”

(Nārada Mahā Purāṇa, Poorvardha, Chapter 59)

Janaka’s teaching: the āśramas as the base

Janaka began with the duties of a brāhmaṇa from birth through all four āśramas.

  1. Brahmacarya. After the upanayana the student gives himself to the Veda (Veda-parāyaṇa). He serves his guru with tapas and brahmacarya, free of jealousy and of expectation (āśā). He honours the devatās and the pitṛ-devatās, masters his senses and studies. He goes home only after giving the proper gurudakshiṇā (the teacher’s fee) and getting his guru’s leave.
  2. Gṛhastha. After returning home he takes a wife and lives a disciplined life. He sets up the sacred fires (āhitāgni), is free of jealousy, acts by the śāstra, and in time has sons and grandsons.
  3. Vānaprastha. He keeps those same sacred fires properly and is devoted to guests. In time he gathers the fires into himself (ātmāgnyāveśa). He becomes a knower of dharma, rises above the pairs of opposites (dvandvas), and grows in vairāgya (detachment).
  4. Sannyāsa, or Brahma-āśrama. Having given up everything, he lives in the Brahma-āśrama, the final stage of complete inner freedom.

(Nārada Mahā Purāṇa, Poorvardha, Chapter 59)

Śuka’s challenge about the āśramas

Śuka always looked for the deepest truth, and he put a challenge to Janaka: “If jñāna and vijñāna are already set in the heart, if they are directly present, why must one pass through the stages of the āśramas at all? Is the āśrama a must? Or is it not needed?”

Janaka’s answer: jñāna, the guru and moksha

Janaka answered with the whole teaching on how moksha is gained:

Without jñāna and vijñāna, moksha is not gained. And without a bond with a guru, jñāna is not gained. The ācārya is the one who helps a person cross over (tārayitā). Jñāna is the boat. Having gained jñāna and become kṛtakṛtya (one who has done all that had to be done), one must then let go of both the one who helped him cross and the boat.

For the good of the world (loka-saṃgraha) and the completeness of the work of karma (karma-saṃgraha), one may do good and bad karmas. But after many births of such wandering (saṃcāra), moksha is gained. For one whose ātmā is wholly pure, moksha can be gained even in the first āśrama.

Having gained moksha and become mukta, a jñānin and a paṇḍita, for one who wants only the Supreme (Para), what use are the other three āśramas?

One must always give up the faults of rajas and tamas. Staying on the path of sattva, one should see the ātmā by the ātmā. Seeing the ātmā in all beings and all beings in the ātmā, one should form no attachment. Just as a fish is not touched by water, and a bird moves free in the sky, so one who lives in this world in this way gains endless freedom (anantya).

One who rises above the pairs of heat and cold (shītoshṇa), of pleasure and pain, who is freed from the bonds of saṃsāra, who keeps company with what is good, is liberated when the body falls away.

(Nārada Mahā Purāṇa, Poorvardha, Chapters 59-60)

Yayāti’s gāthās

Janaka then quoted the gāthās (songs, or sayings) of Yayāti Mahārāja in support of his teaching. These are old words on the nature of the self and liberation, which the experts in the science of moksha (moksha-śāstra-vidāras) always carry in their hearts. The gāthās say:

  • The light (jyoti) lives in the ātmā itself and nowhere else. The ātmā is the jewel (ratna). A person who is spiritually awake can see the ātmā directly.
  • One who fears nothing and is feared by nothing, who wants nothing and hates nothing, becomes Brahman.
  • One who has no pāpa-bhāva (sinful thought) toward any being, who follows the four āśramas in order, and who does many acts of puṇya (merit) with purity of thought, word and deed, becomes Brahman.
  • One who has given up the jealousy that causes moha (delusion), who has gathered the ātmā in himself through tapas, and who has let go of lobha (greed) and krodha (anger), reaches the state of Brahman (brahmatva).
  • One who sees the imperishable (avyaya) in all that is heard (śravya) and all that is seen (dṛśya) and in all beings, who is even-minded and has risen above the pairs of opposites, becomes Brahman.
  • One who looks on praise and blame as equal, who sees gold and iron as the same, pleasure and pain as the same, cold and heat as the same, gain and loss as the same, the dear and the not dear as the same, birth and death as the same: on the day he can look on all these with equal mind, he becomes Brahman.
  • The jñānin should draw the senses into the mind, by the mind, as a tortoise draws in its limbs.

(Nārada Mahā Purāṇa, Poorvardha, Chapter 60)

Sources

  • Nārada Mahā Purāṇa, Poorvardha, Chapter 58
  • Nārada Mahā Purāṇa, Poorvardha, Chapters 59-60