The Upanisads

This dialogue appears soon after the Pānḍavas have begun their twelve years in forest exile after the ill-fated dicing match. After they plead with a group of brahmins not to follow them into the forest, a wise brahmin named Śaunaka steps forward to deliver Yudhiṣṭhira a teaching

Shortly after recounting Janaka’s teaching, Śaunaka instructs Yudhiṣṭhira on how to discipline his desires, comparing a man controlling his senses to a charioteer controlling horses

Āraṇyaka Parvan between a brahmin named Śaunaka and Yudhiṣṭhira that brings up a number of teachings that are reminiscent of doctrines in the Upaniṣads.

As one of the primary listeners to Ugraśravas’ narration in the text’s outer frame dialogue, Śaunaka (see Patton 2011) is the character from the Upaniṣads who, arguably, plays the most important role in the Mahābhārata

The fourth character, King Janaka

Śaunaka, who, in a dialogue with Yudhiṣṭhira, delivers a number of teachings that are characteristic of the Upaniṣads

The second character is Uddālaka Āruṇi, who features in a number of episodes in the Mahābhārata containing themes reminiscent of narratives in which he appears in the Upaniṣads

Moreover, there are several indications that the epic quoted from the Upaniṣads directly.

some specific passages in the Mahābhārata are from the Kaṭha, Śvetāśvatara, and Maitrī Upaniṣads

The self is not the ultimate, but is like a lamp by which disciplined man (yuj again) sees the unchanging unborn one