Kapila Muni -- The Father of Philosophy

---  Swami Samarpanananda

The first teacher of any evolved creature is his mother. So, if ever a mother accepts her own son as her teacher, then that son has to be really great. Although such a thing rarely happens, particularly in the field of spirituality, it does happen, and Kapila, the son of Devahuti, is a luminous example of this. His mother became his first disciple, and in later times he came to be known as the Father of Philosophy. His simple life, coupled with his erudition on Samkhya, Yoga, Vedanta, and Bhakti schools of thoughts makes him the greatest among sages. 

Unlike many other sages of Vedic times, Kapila is more historical and human. Even Acharya Shankara accepts his identity and greatness as the teacher of Samkhya philosophy. Various lores, traditions and writings show the impact of the sage on the Indian psyche.

Kapila's father was a great sage Kardama, and his mother was Devahuti. The legend is that Devahuti, although a Divine personality, was too infatuated with the trappings of the world. Out of sheer passion to enjoy life, she requested her sage husband to make it possible for her to do so in a spectacular fashion. The sage obliged. Devahuti was now able to experience such enjoyments as were not possible even for the gods to enjoy. However, Kardama left everything, including his weeping wife, and went to perform tapasya, after their son Kapila was born. This giving up was in accordance with an earlier agreement between the couple.

Kapila is believed to be a born Siddha, a man who has attained perfection, even before his birth. He was a spiritual prodigy from his early childhood, and he soon took to performing unwavering tapasya. The hard spiritual labour bore fruits, and Kapila attained the Highest goal while quite young. He was now ready to engage himself in the welfare of the humanity by meditating on the Universal Self, and also by teaching, preaching, instructing and guiding the spiritual seekers. The divine providence was such that his own mother, Devahuti, became his first disciple. She had been disillusioned with all kinds of enjoyment after the departure of her husband, that made her long for eternal peace and joy that comes only to the spiritually illumined and liberated. With this foremost desire in her mind, she approached her son to instruct her in the ways of God. Kapila the son, agreed to be Kapila, the teacher to her mother.

Kapila then taught his mother the Samkhya system of philosophy (which later became jnana Yoga), the Yoga system of sadhana, and the Bhakti way of Spiritual Realisation. These three vital aspects of Hindu spiritual tradition were first propounded and explained in detail by Sage Kapila only. The later philosophers, saints and poets developed these ideas into fully grown systems, which continue to play essential roles in Hindu system of thought even today.

While preaching his mother about the importance of devotion to the Lord, Kapila said, "The glory of the Lord is always worth singing, for His glories enhance the glories of His devotees. One should therefore meditate upon the Supreme Personality of Godhead and upon His devotees. One should meditate on the eternal form of the Lord until the mind becomes fixed." (Srimad Bhagavatam, 3.28.18)

Devahuti felt so illumined and blessed by the instructions of her own son that she prayed to him, "I believe, my Lord, that You are Lord Viṣhṇu Himself under the name of Kapila, and You are the Supreme Personality of Godhead, the Supreme Brahman! The saints and sages, being freed from all the disturbances of the senses and mind, meditate upon You, for by Your mercy only can one become free from the clutches of the three modes of material nature. At the time of dissolution, all the Vedas are sustained in You only."

As instructed by her son, Devahuti began to practice Bhakti yoga and soon became detached from her divinely attractive home, and even from her own body. Her mind always fixed on God, she soon became liberated from material bondages, attained samadhi, and finally became one with the Supreme.

 This unusual feat by Kapila got him the highest status that can be accorded to a person in Hinduism -- he was accepted as one of the twenty-four incarnations of Lord Vishnu in the Bhagavata Purana. Actually, the doctrine of incarnation of the Puranas is a unique concept. According to the Vedantins, there is an Eternal God (Isvara) who is the Lord of all, while the Buddhists and the Sankhyas believe only in a God who was earlier a man, but became God through spiritual practices. The Puranas reconcile these two positions, and proclaim that the Perfected person is nothing but the Nitya Ishvara (Eternal God), who with the help of His own Maya takes up that form. It is this concept of avatara that is current in Hinduism even today.

On the other hand, Kapila is exemplified in Gita by Lord Krishna as the best among perfect beings, "Of the trees I am the banyan, of the divine sages I am Narada, of the gandharvas I am Citraratha, and among siddhas (perfected beings) I am the sage Kapila.'

According to a story of the Puranas, king Prithu once milked the Earth to extract all that was noble in it. The Earth took the form of a cow and allowed different beings to drink her milk to get what each one of them wanted on behalf of their tribe. At that time Kapila, on behalf of the siddhas, milked her of the yogic powers like anima (power to become small), garima (power to become huge) etc. It is only due to Kapila, the father of yoga, that the yogis attain various powers.

Samkhya of Kapila: Although Kapila was the first one to popularise Yoga and Bhakti, he is more famous as the father of Samkhya. When it comes to a systematic philosophical system, the Samkhya philosophy is the most ancient philosophy of India, and also of the world. Not only that, it is the very foundation of all accepted systems of philosophy (Darshanas) in India, and according to Swami Vivekananda, Vedanta is its logical outcome only.

According to Samkhya, there are two realities, Purusha (consciousness), and Prakriti (matter). Prakriti is made up of three qualities (sattva, rajas and tamas), which stay in balance when there is no creation. When the time for creation comes, this balance is disturbed, which results in evolutes like Cosmic mind (mahat), Ego (Ahamkara), five subtle elements (mahabhuta), five gross elements (tanmatras), sense organs (indriyas), and the mind. These twenty-four principles (tattva) constitute the world as we understand. Since mind is inert, consciousness is also treated as insentient (jada) in Samkhya. This outlook that the real consciousness lies only with the soul, is shared by Vedanta and also by most of the Indian philosophical systems.

By saying that consciousness does not belong to mind, Kapila gave birth to Indian brand of psychology. According to this, mind is also matter, and acts like a conscious entity simply because it is lighted up with the reflected consciousness of the soul. True individuality of a person does not lie with mind, but with the soul.

However, unlike Vedanta, Samkhya believes in the existence of many souls. When these souls get entangled with Prakriti, they experience dualities like pleasure and pain, but when they start panting for liberation, they come out of Prakriti as its masters, and these freed souls become Gods. According to Samkhya, the God spoken of in the Vedas is one of these free souls only. Beyond them there is no eternally free God.

Samkhya is the first philosophy to show that the manifested state is the effect, and the finer state its cause, while destruction means going back to its cause. By accepting that the cause and the effect are same, Hindu philosophy took a great leap forward.

Kapila and Makar Sankranti:  Maharishi Kapila is also associated with the importance of Makar Sankranti and with the bringing down of Ganga from the heaven.

King Sagar of Ayodhya, an ancestor of Rama, had performed the Aswamedha sacrifice for ninety-nine times. He now wanted to perfrom it one last time so that he could become the king of gods, Indra. This made Indra worried and jealous, and so he kidnapped the horse and hid it in the hermitage of Kapila Muni. Sagara had sixty thousand sons who set in search of the lost horse and ultimately found it in the ashrama of Kapila. They concluded that Kapila was the thief, and so insulted him abundantly. Enraged at the humiliation, Kapila burnt them to ashes.

When Kapila was prayed by the descendants of these princes to be forgiven, and redeemed from the curse, Kapila replied that only Ganga, brought down from the heaven, could redeem these souls. Bhagirath, a descendent of Sagara, finally succeeded in bringing down Ganga from the heaven and made it wash the ashes of his ancestors to the ocean. Bhagirath performed tarpan (last rites) with the Ganga water for his ancestors and had them liberated from the curse on Makar Sankranti day. To commemorate the event, a very big Ganga Sagar Mela is organised every year on this day at the confluence of Ganga and the ocean, where a temple dedicate to Kapila Muni also exists.

Essential Teachings: Sage Kapila was essentially a teacher of mukti. In Mahabharata, he says, "Those who lead a life of domesticity are certainly auspicious and acquire excellence of every kind. They are unable, however, to enjoy the bliss that attaches to Renunciation."

'Acts only cleanse the body. Knowledge, however, is the highest end (for which one must strive). When all faults of the heart are cured (by acts), and when the mind gets established in knowledge, then benevolence, forgiveness, tranquillity, compassion, truthfulness, and candour, abstention from injury, absence of pride, modesty, renunciation, and abstention from work are attained. These constitute the path that lead to the spiritual realisation.

'When one is completely cleansed of the impurities of lust and greed produced from the false identification of the body as "I" and bodily possessions as "mine," one's mind becomes purified. In that pure state he transcends the stage of so-called material happiness and distress.'

Kapila Muni wanted every spiritual aspirant to differentiate between the matter and the spirit. His enumeration of the twenty-four principles was to help an aspirant distinguish between that which was Real, and that which was transient.

Swami Vivekananda paid his tribute to Kapila by saying that 'The influence of Kapila is everywhere seen throughout the world. Wherever there is a recognised system of thought, there you can trace his influence; even if it be thousands of years back, yet he stands there, the shining, glorious, wonderful Kapila. His psychology and a good deal of his philosophy have been accepted by all the sects of India with but very little differences. "(Complete Works, 3.327)

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