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Even the seers and sages were astonished by the intellectual wealth of this king. Let me tell you a story from the initial section of the Vedas.
There was once a meeting of intellectuals at King Janaka's palace. The discussion was on the Karmakanda section of the Vedas. Very minute points were being discussed relating to vedic rituals. All the sages were expressing their opinions and none of them could agree with each other. At that moment King Janaka spoke on a very minute point regarding karma, which resolved the knot of confusion. The great sage Yagyavalkya was highly surprised at the king's deep understanding. A person who was always engrossed in sorting out the problems of his kingdom and his people, living amongst the worldly pleasures, how did he come to know such a fine point in the area of esoteric knowledge?
Being impressed by his genius, the great sage Yagyavalkya gave him a boon of kaama prashna. That means that one is allowed to ask Yagyavalkya any question at any time. If you want to ask a question to any sage, you usually have to wait until the sage can give you some of his time. Swami Niranjanananda can be seen so easily on the stage today. But after the convention you will have to wait for hours to see him. And you can ask questions only when he is in a mood to answer.
Tadviddhi pranipatene pariprashnena sevaya,
upade kshanti te gyanam gyaninah tattwadarshinih
Lord Krishna in this sloka has ordered that we should request repeatedly, do service at his feet, and then ask questions; only then will the realized and learned people give knowledge. A question is preceded by a big preparation. However, with this boon, the one who asks questions has nothing to worry about. He does not have to think whether the teacher is hungry or thirsty or is in any other state or mood.
Receiving such a boon overwhelmed King Janaka. He went on asking a series of questions, one after the other. This is mentioned in the Brihadaaranyaka Upanishad. Looking at the interest displayed by King Janaka and the minuteness of his questions, sage Yagyavalkya was baffled for a moment and thought, "This king wants to soak up all my knowledge with this boon." Even such a great sage, of such a high caliber, was surprized by the king's genius. So that is Janaka, who was the emperor of the Mithila region, and any scholar of that time would come travelling to Mithila saying, “Janaka, Janaka”.
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