Shounaka

The Pandavas are ready to leave for the forest after losing everything. The brahmanas who subsist on alms gather before them. Yudhishthira tells them to leave — he cannot impose painful tasks on his miserable brothers. Then he sits on the ground and sorrows, lamenting his lowly condition.

Yudhishthira defends the householder's duty to provide for others. Shounaka responds by arguing that the world is full of contradictions and that attachment to the senses leads to endless rebirth. He prescribes the eightfold path of dharma and urges the king to seek success through austerities and yoga.

Shounaka advises Yudhishthira to abandon desire for riches. But Yudhishthira responds that he does not seek wealth for enjoyment or avarice — he seeks it to support brahmanas and fulfill the householder's dharma of giving food, shelter, and hospitality to all beings.

Yudhishthira sits sorrowing on the ground after losing everything. The learned brahmana Shounaka sees his grief and recites the ancient shlokas of King Janaka — a systematic argument that attachment is the root of all misery, and that the wise should not crave riches.

In the Dvaitavana forest, where Vedic chants mingle with the twang of Pandava bowstrings, the rishi Baka Dalbhya addresses Yudhishthira with a pointed counsel: a kshatriya without brahmanas is like an unrestrained elephant in battle. He urges the king to seek a wise, disciplined brahmana to acquire what he lacks and secure his future — citing the examples of Bali and Virochana's son to show what happens when that alliance is honored or broken.