MithilAyAM tu daghdhAyAm

[Walter Slaje]

In the MBh context, this passage refers to the mentally detached attitude of a "(jiivan-)mukta" of the Grhastha type, taking King Janaka as a model. Liberated (mukta) from involvement and internally unaffected by the destruction of even his capital, he nonetheless refuses to renounce the world, remains active, keeping to his duties with a non-intentional mind.
For details, see
Walter Slaje: Towards a history of the jivanmukti concept: The Mok?adharma in the Mahabharata In: Haranandalahari. Volume in Honour of Professor Minoru Hara on his Seventieth Birthday, ed. by Ryutaro Tsuchida and Albrecht Wezler. Reinbek 2000, pp. 325-348.

WS


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Prof. Dr. Walter Slaje
Hermann-Loens-Str. 1
D-99425 Weimar (Germany)
Tel/Fax: +49-(0)3643 501391
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Seminar für Indologie
Institut für Altertumswissenschaften
Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg
Emil-Abderhalden-Str. 9
D-06108 Halle (Germany)
Tel: +49-(0)345-55-23650
Fax: +49-(0)345-55-27139
walter.slaje at indologie.uni-halle.de
www.indologie.uni-halle.de
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Ego ex animi mei sententia spondeo ac polliceor
me studia humanitatis impigro labore culturum et provecturum
non sordidi lucri causa nec ad vanam captandam gloriam,
sed quo magis veritas propagetur et lux eius, qua salus
humani generis continetur, clarius effulgeat.
Vindobonae, die XXI. mensis Novembris MCMLXXXIII.