Senajit
Senajit is a king who appears in the Mahābhārata, Śānti Parva, Mokshadharma Parva, Chapter 174. The chapter is called the Brāhmaṇa-Senajit-Saṃvāda, the conversation between a brāhmaṇa and Senajit. The king is sunk in deep śoka (grief). A wise brāhmaṇa, his friend, comes to him. The brāhmaṇa shows him that grief has no real substance. He teaches him with a series of clear arguments and by telling the Piṅgalā gāthā (a verse-song), the song of the dancing woman Piṅgalā. The king’s calm returns.
Role in the account
Senajit is the one who receives the opening teaching of the vairāgya (detachment) series in the Mokshadharma Parva. A brāhmaṇa who is Senajit’s bandhu (friend) comes to him and finds him sunk in grief. The brāhmaṇa asks him why he mourns. What is there to lose that deserves such grief? Then he teaches him:
- The nature of grief. It has no substance and helps no one.
- The passing nature of all beings. All who were once joined to you came from their own paths and will go back to their own paths. They are like floating logs that meet for a short time in the ocean and then part, never to meet again.
- How beings arise from the avyakta and return to it. All beings come from the avyakta (the unmanifest) and go back to the avyakta. The look of kinship and loss is a passing arrangement in the endless flow of creation.
- The teaching through the Piṅgalā gāthā. It is the account of a dancing woman, Piṅgalā, who waited for a client who never came. In her waiting she found an inner surrender that brings true contentment.
His name and the telling
The name Senajit means “one who conquers armies”.
Bhīshma tells this account to Yudhishṭhira. Yudhishṭhira is grieving over the losses of the Kurukshetra war. Bhīshma begins with these words: prajñā (wisdom) alone is the root and refuge of all creatures, and prajñā alone brings the highest lābha (gain) and śreyas (the highest good).
Sources
- Mahābhārata, Śānti Parva, Mokshadharma Parva, Chapter 174