Syūmaraśmi and Kapila

The Goka-pilīyam is a dialogue of three chapters in the Mokshadharma Parva of the Śānti Parva of the Mahābhārata (Chapters 268 to 270). It is between Syūmaraśmi and the great Sāṃkhya teacher Kapila. Bhīshma tells it to Yudhishṭhira.

Syūmaraśmi holds that yajña (the fire ritual) is the main means of dharma. Kapila shows that ahiṃsā (non-harm), jñāna (knowledge) and the nivṛtti mārga (the path of withdrawal) are higher. The dialogue ends with a full teaching on how each of the four āśramas (stages of life), practised with its own highest sādhanā (practice), leads to brahma-prāpti, the attainment of Brahman. Bhīshma gives it as one more case in the Mokshadharma Parva’s long teaching on the dharma of ahiṃsā.

Syūmaraśmi’s position (Chapter 268)

Syūmaraśmi began the debate with the view of those who follow the śruti. The Vedas, he said, are the highest pramāṇa (proof) for all beings. The Vedas plainly prescribe yajña, including animal yajña, as a main duty of dharma. To refuse yajña because of ahiṃsā is to put one’s own feeling above the authority of the Veda, and that is itself adharma.

Kapila first separated two levels of Brahman in the Vedas. One is śabdabrahma, the Veda of rites and liturgy, the karmakāṇḍa. The other is parabrahma, the Veda of knowledge, the jñānakāṇḍa. Both are truly Vedic. The question is which is higher.

Kapila said the Vedas themselves, in the Upanishadic part, give the answer: knowledge of parabrahma is the goal, and the practice of śabdabrahma is the preparation. When the harm in yajña is seen in the light of this higher teaching of the Veda, it is a first step that full understanding goes beyond.

Pravṛtti and nivṛtti (Chapter 269)

Chapter 269 deals with the two basic mārgas (paths). Pravṛtti is the path of engagement with action and its fruits. Nivṛtti is the path of withdrawal and letting go.

Kapila did not set pravṛtti aside. He called it the right path for most beings at most stages of growth. The path of yajña, the path of the householder and the path of ruling by dharma all belong to pravṛtti, and each has its proper place.

But pravṛtti is saguṇa by nature. It works through the guṇas, and it gives fruit that in the end is used up. Nivṛtti is nirguṇa. It moves toward the ground beneath all work of the guṇas, toward the ātmā, which sees without being moved. A person who has truly come to the nivṛtti turn of mind does not give up the forms of pravṛtti out of scorn. He gives them up because the saṃskāra (the mental impression) that made them attractive has dissolved on its own.

Brahma-prāpti through all four āśramas (Chapter 270)

The last chapter is the fullest teaching. Kapila said that brahma-prāpti, the direct realisation of Brahman, is not only for the sannyāsa āśrama. It is open in all four āśramas, if the sādhaka (seeker) in that stage takes up the highest practice that suits his place.

  • Brahmacarya. Through purity, control of the senses, full attention to svādhyāya (study of the Veda) and a good relation with the guru in the gurukula, the brahmacārī can realise parabrahma directly. Kapila gave the line:

śabdabrahmaṇi nishṇātaḥ parabrahma adhigacchati

One who is firmly established in śabdabrahma attains parabrahma.

  • Gṛhastha. Through works done with complete nishkāmatā (freedom from desire for their fruit), through the five great yajñas (pañca-mahāyajñas), and through dāna (giving) and hospitality, the householder’s antaḥkaraṇa (inner mind) is purified. He then reaches the same cit-śuddhi (purity of mind) that is the gate to jñāna.
  • Vānaprastha. Through tapas, through slowly giving up every outer support, and through steady meditation on the ātmā in the quiet of the forest, the vānaprastha grows the one-pointedness that allows direct ātma-sākshātkāra (seeing the ātmā directly).
  • Sannyāsa. Through the full dissolving of all outer identity, through OM-japa (repeating Oṃ) and maunam (silence), and through the free wandering of the parivrajaka, the sannyāsī reaches the nishkampā (unshaking) awareness that is parabrahma.

Kapila’s main point is that none of these paths alone holds the gift of realisation, and that the outer form, the āśrama, always comes second to the inner turn of mind: viveka (discernment), vairāgya (dispassion), mumukshutva (the wish for moksha) and the dissolving of ahaṃkāra (the sense of “I”).

Sources

  • Mahābhārata, Śānti Parva, Mokshadharma Parva, Chapters 268–270