Brahma came to see the divine newborn and Kardama offered him
respects. Then Kardama gave his daughters in marriage to great Rishis: Kala
to Marici, Anasuya to Atri, Sraddha to Angira, Havirbhu to Pulastya, Gati to
Pulaya, Kriya to Kratu, Khyati to Bhrigu, Arundhati to Vasistha and Santi
to Atharva. He then offered prayers to the Supreme Lord, who had
incarnated as his son Kapila, and asked his permission to retire from family
life and go to the forest to meditate alone and then to roam around the
world following the strict rules of renunciation of sannyasa. Free from all
identifications and material attachments, from all desires and repulsion,
Kardama finally attained the supreme liberation.
Kapila stayed with his mother Devahuti, and on her request he explained
the method of devotional service to the Supreme Lord, that constitutes the
supreme form of yoga. The mind becomes purified when it is completely
free from the desires produced by the false identifications with the body
and by material attachments. Awakened to its true spiritual nature, the soul
transcends the joys and sorrows of this world and by practicing knowledge
and renunciation it only accepts the company of the realized sages - who
are tolerant, compassionate, peaceful and friendly towards all living beings.
The sadhus live by practicing the teachings of the scriptures and do not see
anyone as their enemies, but renounce all material ties because they only
seek pleasure in the meditation on the Lord's activities. The company of
such saintly people helps one to overcome material attachments and
become firmly established in divine consciousness.
To help Devahuti to better concentrate on this meditation, Kapila explained
to her the Sankhya yoga, that is a combination of devotional service and
mystic realization, that considers the senses as the symbolic representations
of the Devas and the mind as the representative of the Supreme Lord. The
natural tendency of the senses is to act according to the instructions of the
Vedas and the tendency of the mind is to serve. The supreme service is the
service offered to the Lord, in full knowledge and awareness of the Divine
is the supreme perfection of self realization.
The Supreme Lord is the Supreme Soul, who has no beginning or end; he
transcends the world of matter but can be perceived everywhere in theuniverse because he is omnipresent. Entering the material energy, the Lord
starts the creation of the universe. The static combination of the three gunas,
the three influences of nature, is the aggregate of the elements that
compose nature, and is called pradhana. These elements are the five gross
elements, the five subtle elements, the four internal senses, the five senses
of perception and the five organs of action.
The five gross elements are earth (energy in the solid form), water (energy
in liquid form), fire (energy in the form of heat and light), air (energy in the
form of gas) and space. The five corresponding subtle elements are smell,
taste, color, touch and sound. The senses of perception are the sense of
smell, taste, sight, touch and hearing, while the senses of action are those
that enable us to speak, move, work, generate and evacuate. The internal
subtle senses are the mind, intelligence, ego and material awareness. The
25th element is time, the eternal manifestation of God that starts and ends
creation, while the 26th element is the presence of the soul.
In the beginning, the soul has a pure, clear and peaceful awareness, free
from all distractions, but when it identifies with matter, the principles of
creation manifest the various material elements. The false perception of the
self is controlled by Ananta Sankarshana: this false perception, focused in
goodness, manifests the mind, controlled by Aniruddha. Material
identification focused in passion manifests intelligence, with its functions
such as doubt, correct understanding, incorrect understanding, memory and
sleep, as well as the senses of perception and action, that depend
respectively on intelligence and life energy.
Material identification focused in ignorance produces the material elements,
beginning with the subtle element of sound, that in turn produces space and
the sense of hearing. Sound is that which transmits the idea of an object
and indicates the presence of a person even if we cannot see him or her.
The characteristics of space are the power to contain the external and
internal existence of all beings, as the field of action of prana, senses and
mind.
From the existence of space the element of touch develops, and then air.
Touch is characterized by the feeling of hardness and softness, heat and
cold, while the function of air is to move, mix, and enable access to the
object of the sense of hearing and the other senses.The interaction of air with the sense of touch produces the forms of the
bodies, determined by the destiny of each individual. The evolution of the
forms generates the fire (light and heat) and the eyes become able to
perceive forms and colors. The characteristics of form are size, quality and
individuality. The form of fire is perceived by its radiance; fire is appreciated
for its light, for the power to cook, digest, evaporate, destroy cold and
stimulate hunger and thirst - the desire and the action to eat and drink.
The interaction of fire with the visual perception evolves the element of
taste, that produces water and the sense that perceives taste (the tongue).
Although taste is originally one, it develops in various categories such as
astringent, sweet, bitter, pungent, acid and salty, because of its contact wth
different substances.
The characteristics of water are the power to drench other substances, to
coagulate various mixtures, destroy thirst, give satisfaction and sustain life,
soften things, fight heat and constantly return to the water reservoirs.
The interaction of water with the perception of taste develops the subtle
element of odor, that manifests earth and the sense of smell. Odor is one,
but it manifests in many ways - mixed, disgusting, fragrant, sweet, strong,
acid and so on - according to the proportions of the associated substances.
The characteristic functions of earth can be perceived by fashioning forms
of the Supreme Brahman, building residences, preparing pots and
containers for water and other substances and so on. In other words, earth
is the support for all other elements.
The sense that perceives sound is called hearing, the sense perceiving touch
is called tact, the one perceiving form (the characteristic of fire) is called
sight, the one perceiving taste (the characteristic of water) is called taste, the
one perceiving odor (the characteristic of earth) is called smell. Because
cause also exists in the effect, the characteristics of the cause are also found
in the effect: therefore in earth we can found the characteristics of all other
elements.
When all these elements become differentiated, the Supreme Lord
personally enters the creation together with time, action and the gunas (the
fundamental qualities of nature, namely goodness, passion and ignorance),
giving birth to the Cosmic Egg. The universe has the shape of an egg, with
layers of elements each 10 times thicker than the previous one, and it
surrounded by non-manifested nature.
