The Activities of Kapila Muni:

Skandham-3.2

Chapter-33.

Slokam- 1 to 37. 

The Activities of Kapila Muni:

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(1) Maitreya said: 'After the dear wife of Kardama, the mother named Devahûti, thus had heard of the words of Lord Kapila, did she, freed from the coverings of illusion and having offered Him her obeisances, recite prayers to the author in the matter of the basic principles that make up the background of liberation. (2) Devahûti said: 'It is said to be that the Unborn One [Brahmâ] who was born from the lotus flower from Your abdomen, himself meditated upon Your body lying in the water, the source of the stream of the modes of nature, that is the seed of all manifest in pervading the material elements, the senses, the sense-objects and the mind. (3) As indeed that very person of the universe You carry on with Your heroism to that what is divided by the interaction of the modes with the creation and everything, thereto as the non-doer making the difference of Your determination as the Lord of all living beings whose thousands of energies are inconceivable. (4) As that same person You took birth from my abdomen, o my Lord; You of inconceivable powers, of whom then this universe did rest in the belly, do, at the end of the millennium, lay Yourself alone down on the leaf of a Banyan tree, as a baby licking Your toe. (5) You have assumed this body to diminish the sinful activities and give instructions on the devotion; o my Lord, for the greater power of Your avatâra's, the boar incarnation and others, You indeed came in order to reveal the path of selfrealization. (6) And what again to say of seeing You, o Fortunate One, face to face, of whose hearing the chanting of the name, the offering of obeisances and the remembering, at any time even the lowest born immediately becomes eligible for performing vedic rituals. (7) O how glorious and hence worshipable is [even] the one cooking for himself only, who has the holy name on the tip of his tongue; unto You did the civilized, who studied the Veda's and have accepted Your holy name, practice austerities, did they execute fire sacrifices and bathe themselves in the sacred rivers. (8) Unto Him, You, the Highest Spirit, the Supreme Personality, Lord Vishnu carrying the name of Kapila who is the repository of the Veda's, to whom I turned inwards to listen, whom I perceived in the mind and meditated upon and by whose potency the influence of the modes vanished, I offer my obeisances. 

(9) Maitreya said: 'The Supreme Lord, the Supreme Personality named Kapila, thus praised, replied, in full affection with His mother, her with words of gravity. (10) Lord Kapila said: 'To perform by the path of this what I instructed to you, My dear mother, is very easy; very soon you will attain the supreme goal. (11) You may rest assured that concerning this instruction of Me followed by the transcendentalists, you shall reach freedom from fear while [the cycle of birth and] death is what is attained by the ones not conversant with this. 

12) Maitreya said: 'After thus instructing did that venerable Supreme Lord of the path of selfrealization, the selfrealized Kapila, take permission from His mother and left. (13) As her son told her instructing on yoga, she also fixed herself in samâdhi to be connected in yoga in that abode, the flower crown of the Sarasvatî river [Kardama's palace]. (14) Bathing regularly, turned her curly matted hair gray and did her body, clad in old clothes, grow thin of the severe austerities. (15) By the austerity of yoga had Kardama Muni, a progenitor of mankind, developed the unequaled of his home with all its paraphernalia, which was even envied by the denizens of heaven. (16) The ivory beds white as the foam of milk had gold filigree covers and the chairs and benches were made of gold and had cushions soft to the touch. (17) The walls were of pure marble inlaid with valuable emeralds and lamps shone with jewels which also decorated the women. (18) The garden of the household was beautiful with flowers and fruits, many trees with pairs of singing birds and the humming of intoxicated bees. (19) Of the great care of Kardama, there the heavenly associates sang to her as she entered the pond fragrant with lotuses. 

(20) Giving up on that most desirable of all households that was even envied by the wives of Indra, she had a sorry look on her face being afflicted by the separation from her son. (21) With her husband who had left for the forest and the distance from her son, she, despite of her knowing the truth, grew very sad, like an affectionate cow that lost her calf. (22) Verily meditating upon Him, her divine son Kapiladev, she very soon, o dear Vidura, became unattached to her fine home. (23) Meditating upon the form of the Supreme Lord to which He had instructed, she as her object kept the whole and the parts of the smiling face of her son in her mind. (24-25) Continuously engaged in devotional service and very strong by the proper performance of the duties in renunciation resulting from the knowledge of the Absolute Truth, she then by the purification of her mind to the Great Soul whose face is seen everywhere, saw by selfrealization the distinctions of the modes of nature disappear. (26) With her mind situated in Brahman and freed in the Supreme Lord residing in all beings did the material pangs of the unfortunate condition of her individual soul disappear as she attained transcendental bliss. (27) From her trance situated in the eternal and freed from the bewilderment by the modes of material nature she then forgot about her material body just as one who has risen forgets what is seen in a dream. (28) Her body although maintained by others did not emaciate though as anxiety did not occur to her; she shone like a fire covered by the thick of smoke. (29) Absorbed in thoughts about Vâsudeva, was she, under divine protection, with her body in the full of the austerity of her yoga practice, not aware of her hair hanging loose or her garments being in disarray. (30) Thus did she, instructed by Kapila, by the path soon without fail achieve the beyond of the Supersoul finding the cessation of material existence in the Spirit of the Absolute Truth of the Supreme Lord. 

(31) That palace where she attained the perfection, o brave one, was a most sacred place and is in the three worlds known under the name of Siddhapada [the refuge of perfection]. (32) The material elements of her mortal body relinquished by the practice of yoga became a river that is the foremost of all rivers, o gentle one, to which all who desire perfection resort as it confers that perfection. (33) Lord Kapila, the great yogi and Supreme Lord, himself going from that abode when he took leave of his mother, had headed in the northeast direction. (34) Being extolled by the Siddha's, the Cânara's, the Ghandarva's, muni's and Apsara's, offered the ocean Him oblations and a place of residence [known and still worshiped today as Ganga-sagara-tirtha, the place where the Ganges meets the ocean]. (35) There he remains in samâdhi, to ensure the deliverance of the three worlds, being worshiped by the teachers of example that practiced the Sankhya system of yoga. (36) Dear sinless one, this what I upon your inquiries told you about Kapila and His conversation with Devahûti, is of the purest. (37) Whoever hears of or whoever expounds on these confidential teachings of Kapila Muni on the union of the soul and has thus set his mind on the Fortunate One carrying the banner of Garuda, will attain the lotusfeet of the Supreme Lord.

Skandham-3.2 Ends.