Māṇḍavya-Janaka Saṃvāda

King Janaka of Mithilā was a king who had won moksha while living (a jīvanmukta). In this short and famous teaching he tells the ṛshi Māṇḍavya that nothing in the world is truly his. His best-known words are: “Even if all of Mithilā were to burn, nothing that is mine would burn.” Māṇḍavya had asked him about desire and its link to suffering. Bhīshma tells the conversation to Yudhishṭhira, in the Mokshadharma Parva of the Śānti Parva (Chapter 276).

Why Bhīshma told it

Yudhishṭhira was weighed down by grief and guilt. He had seen brothers, teachers, friends and kings killed, all for wealth and a kingdom. The artha (wealth) the war was fought to win had cost far more than it could ever be worth. He asked Bhīshma: what is this desire for artha, and how is it pulled up by the root?

Bhīshma told him the ancient talk between the ṛshi Māṇḍavya and King Janaka. The ṛshi asked a question like Yudhishṭhira’s, and Janaka answered from what he himself had come to know. (Śānti Parva, Chapter 276)

Janaka’s teaching

Janaka’s answer has two parts.

The joyful poverty of the realised

Janaka said: “I live in great sukha (happiness). There is nothing in this world that I call mine. Even if all of Mithilā were to burn, its palaces, its storehouses, its gardens, all of it, nothing that is mine would be lost. For I have seen that nothing here is mine. The kingdom runs through me. It does not belong to me.”

Janaka does not say that he does not feel the world. He rules a kingdom, makes decisions and lives among people. But deep in his awareness the feeling of mine (mamatā) has dissolved. What an ordinary person calls “mine” is property, name, family and the fruits of action. Janaka no longer takes any of it as himself.

The teaching on artha

Janaka then taught Māṇḍavya how artha and dharma stand to each other.

• Artha gathered beyond what dharma needs always brings duḥkha (pain) and never sukha. The one who knows (jñānī) sees this and does not seek artha beyond what real need asks.
• Even artha gathered for dharma, for example for a yajña, is better given up completely than sought by means that harm the seeker’s own integrity. As the teaching says:

dharmārthaṃ yasya vittehā, varaṃ tasya nirīhatā

For one who wants wealth for the sake of dharma, to want nothing at all is better still.

• The wise person uses for dharma whatever artha comes to him by right means, including for the practice that leads to moksha. He lets go of desire for any artha that does not come by dharma. (Śānti Parva, Chapter 276)

Janaka the king

Janaka is the example of a fully realised person who rules a kingdom and yet lives in the ātmā without a break. His outer form is that of a king. His inner state is the highest sannyāsa (renunciation). His case shows that moksha does not need the king to give up his throne. (Śānti Parva, Chapter 276)

Sources

• Mahābhārata, Śānti Parva, Mokshadharma Parva, Chapter 276