Pañcaśikha Maharshi

Pañcaśikha is a great Sāṃkhya maharshi. He is also known as Kāpileya or Kāpila. He was the foremost disciple of Āsuri Maharshi, and through Āsuri he inherited the Sāṃkhya wisdom of Kapila.

The Nārada Mahā Purāṇa describes him as a ciranjīvī (an immortal). He was born through a brāhmaṇī named Kavali and nursed by Kāpilī. He wandered the earth and came to Mithilā, where he taught moksha-dharma (the path of liberation) to Janaka Mahārāja. His teaching forms the Bṛhad-upākhyāna, the great philosophical narrative in the Pūrvārdha of the Nārada Purāṇa.

Names and lineage

Pañcaśikha is known by several names:

• Pañcaśikha is his given name.
• Kāpileya or Kāpila are names he received because Kāpilī nursed him after his birth through the brāhmaṇī Kavali.

He is the first or foremost disciple (ādya śishya) of Āsuri Maharshi. Āsuri himself was a disciple in the lineage of Kapila’s Sāṃkhya. The Sāṃkhya tradition runs: Kapila (in the form of Prajāpati), then Āsuri, then Pañcaśikha.

The Nārada Purāṇa says Pañcaśikha came among humans through his own saṅkalpa (firm will). It was not an ordinary birth shaped by karma. He is counted among the immortals and is called the foremost among ṛshis.

Life and tapas

Pañcaśikha performed a sattra (a long yajña session) of a thousand years in the Pañcanadī region, the land of five rivers. Āsuri Maharshi came to him at his āśrama. Āsuri taught him the core Sāṃkhya teaching: the avyakta (the unmanifest Prakṛti), the Purusha (consciousness), and the difference between them. Through yajña, mantra and tapas (austerity), Āsuri had himself realised the kshetra-kshetrajña svarūpa (the true nature of the field and the knower of the field). He passed this on to Pañcaśikha.

The Nārada Purāṇa names this Pañcaśikha as the one through whose teaching the Sāṃkhya system reached its highest form among humans in the present cycle. The text says: “That which the Sāṃkhyas call Kapila (Prajāpati), it is in that form that he made himself known through his own self-manifestation.” (Nārada Mahā Purāṇa, Pūrvārdha, Chapter 45)

Teaching at Mithilā

Pañcaśikha wandered the whole earth to find a worthy student. He came to Mithilā, where Janaka Mahārāja was always thinking about the dharmas of paraloka (the world beyond this one). Janaka saw Pañcaśikha’s great stature. He left behind all the hundred other ācāryas of his court and followed Pañcaśikha to receive the moksha-upadeśa (teaching on liberation).

Pañcaśikha gave Janaka the full Sāṃkhya teaching. It covered:

• the nature of the ātman (the Self)
• the difference between Purusha and Prakṛti
• the five kośas (sheaths)
• the nature of karma and saṃsāra (the cycle of birth and death)
• the criticism of materialist views
• the way to liberation through viveka-jñāna (knowledge that discerns the Self from the not-Self)

His teaching to Janaka is the encounter that shows the relation of guru and śishya (student) in jñāna-yoga, the yoga of knowledge. The wandering ṛshi looks for the worthy student. The philosopher-king recognises him and receives the teaching with full vidhi (rule) and bhāva (devotion). The Sāṃkhya teaching in the Bṛhad-upākhyāna is among the most systematic philosophical teachings kept in the Nārada Purāṇa.

Pañcaśikha in the Mahābhārata

The Mahābhārata, in the Śānti Parva, Mokshadharma Parva, Chapters 218–219, records a separate meeting between Pañcaśikha Kāpileya and Janaka.

Janaka had gathered one hundred learned ācāryas in his court. He questioned each one on philosophy, but he stayed unsatisfied. Each ācārya gave only partial answers, or answers shaped by his own darśana (school of thought). Then Pañcaśikha arrived.

Answer to the Lokāyata view

Janaka first asked Pañcaśikha about the Lokāyata (Cārvāka) view. This school teaches that consciousness arises from the joining of the material elements (bhūtas) and ends when the body ends. It teaches that there is no ātman apart from the body, and that seeking the favour of the devas (devatā-upāyācana) gives no fruit.

Pañcaśikha first stated the Lokāyata position in full. Then he refuted it step by step. If consciousness arose only from the joining of the bhūtas at birth, nothing could explain the pratyaya (recognition) of a continuous “I” that lasts from childhood into adulthood. This recognition of one’s own continuous identity needs a changeless witness. That witness must be different from the changing body made of bhūtas.

Answer to the Bauddha (Saugata) view of skandhas

Pañcaśikha also took up the view linked with the Saugatas. It says that what looks like a self is only a series of momentary skandhas (aggregates), with no unity beneath them. He argued that the very act of noticing change, or impermanence, needs a changeless observer. The one who says “I was young, now I am old” must be a different kind of being from the changing body. Otherwise, who is it that recognises the change?

Advaita and sarvātyāga

The positive teaching is sarvātyāga, the complete giving up of everything. This includes all darśanas, all śāstras, all ideas of identity and all seeking. The ātman that remains when all this is released is the brahma-tattva (the truth of Brahman). This is the Advaita teaching of the Mokshadharma Parva. It is not a doctrine to hold. It is a realisation that dawns when all doctrines have been let go.

At last Janaka was satisfied. He accepted Pañcaśikha’s teaching as the most complete he had received from all the hundred ācāryas.

Sources

• Nārada Mahā Purāṇa, Pūrvārdha (Poorvardha), Chapters 45–52
• Mahābhārata, Śānti Parva, Mokshadharma Parva, Chapters 218–219