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सुलभाजनकसंवाद (sulabhAjanakasaMvAda)

 
Mahabharata
English
Sulabhā-Janaka-saṃvāda(ḥ) (“the conversation between Sulabhā and Janaka”). § 709b (Mokshadh.). Bhīshma related the old narrative of the discourse in days of yore, in Dharma-yuga, between king Janaka Maithila Dharmadhvaja (devoted to renunciation, conversant with the Veda, the moksha-śāstra, etc.), whom many wise men desired to imitate, and the female mendicant Sulabhā, who practised Yoga and wandered over the Earth, and had heard from many tridaṇḍins about Janaka. By her Yoga-power she assumed a beautiful form and instantly repaired to Mithilā, and, on pretence of begging alms, presented herself before the king, who was surrounded by his ministers and learned scholars. By Yoga she entered the king's consciousness by her own consciousness (sattvaṃ sattvena). Then they conversed upon emancipation. The king said he was a disciple of the bhikshu Pañcaśikha of Parāśara's race, and fully conversant with Sāṅkhya and Yoga, etc.
Pañcaśikha had dwelt with him for four months in the rainy season. Sulabhā enumerated thirty principles. Sulabhā was the daughter of R-ṛ Pradhāna
in the sacrifices of her ancestors Indra used to come with Droṇa, etc. ()
no suitable husband could be obtained for her
therefore, she wandered over the earth alone, observant of the practices of asceticism. Sulabhā dwelt this one night in his person like a mendicant in an empty house (XII, 321).