History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v7.c94.45

v7.c94.45

Pañcaśikha figures frequently in the Mahābhārata. In Śāntiparva, chap. 307 (containing only 14 verses) Yudhiṣṭhira asks Bhīṣma how one can rise superior to old age and death, whether by very great tapas²²³⁶ or by rites or by Vedic learning or by the use of *rasāyanas* (elixirs of life or alchemist's prescriptions). Bhīṣma speaks of an ancient dialogue between Janaka and Bhikṣu Pañcaśikha, where the same question was put by Janaka and Pañcaśikha replied that none can escape these two and that union with wife and relatives is like meeting persons when on a journey (i. e. the company of these is not durable or permanent), nobody has seen heaven or hell, that one's duty is not to violate the ordinances of Vedas, and to make gifts and to offer sacrifices. In this chapter there is hardly anything which approaches the special doctrines of the Sāṅkhya, though Pañcaśikha's views are here set forth Chap. 308 (191 verses out of which less than 30 have anything to do with Pañcaśikha's teachings directly) begins with the question of Yudhiṣṭhira 'who secured *mokṣa* without giving up the stage of householder.' Then Bhīṣma narrates to him the dialogue between Janaka called Dharmadhvaja²²³⁷ and Sulabhā, a nun Janaka was learned in the Veda, in mokṣaśāstra and in his own śāstra (*rājadharma*), he had controlled his senses and ruled the earth. She heard from ascetics about Janaka's righteous conduct and she desired to find out the truth. She gave up her form as a nun by her yogic powers and became a woman, a paragon of beauty, and met Janaka. The latter informed her that he was the pupil of old bhikṣu²²³⁸ Pañcaśikha of the Pārāśarya gotra who stayed with him during the four months of the rainy season and who expounded to him the threefold mokṣa (viz. Sāṅkhya, Yoga and the science of government) and yet who did not ask him to give up rulership. Janaka said "I, giving up all attachment, though occupying the highest position (as ruler), follow the three paths of *mokṣa*, the highest rule of this mokṣa is 'freedom from attachment, the absence of attachment is due to correct knowledge whereby one is freed from bondage (of saṁsāra)". Janaka further avows that²²³⁹ on account of the knowledge imparted to him by the bhikṣu who is called after his top-knot, he is free from all attachment, though looking after the kingdom and that he is different from other sannyāsins. Then Janaka gives in verses (308. 38-41) another meaning²²⁴⁰ of the threefold Mokṣa propounded by Pañcaśikha to him viz. (1) highest knowledge and renunciation of actions, (2) strict adherence to the path of *karma* (duties prescribed by Śāstra) and (3) combination of knowledge and actions, and it is said that those who follow this third path resemble householders in several respects. Janaka asserts his view 'wearing ochre-coloured²²⁴¹ garments, shaving the head, carrying a water-vessel placed on three staves-these are merely outward signs and do not lead to *mokṣa* and that *mokṣa* does not consist in non-possession of wealth and bondage does not follow possession of some wealth, but it is *jñāna* by which a person secures deliverance, whether there is possession or non-possession of wealth'. It appears from verse 40 that Pañcaśikha emphasized the third kind of Mokṣaniṣṭhā (Jñānakarmasamuccaya) and Janaka followed that teaching. The rest of the chapter (308) is concerned with Janaka's charges against Sulabhā and Sulabhā's scathing remarks against Janaka.²²⁴² She says at the end 'you have indeed heard from Pañcaśikha the whole (doctrine) about mokṣa together with the means (for attaining it), `with the Upaniṣad passages expounding it or with the auxiliaries (of meditation) and with definite conclusions.'