12.211
Yudhiṣṭhira said.
By what conduct did Janaka, the king of Mithilā and knower of conduct, attain liberation, having abandoned human enjoyments, as a knower of dharma?
Bhīṣma said.
Here too, they recount this ancient story: by following that conduct, the one who understood proper conduct attained great happiness.
Janaka, the king of Mithilā, was deeply engaged in contemplating the duties related to post-cremation rites.
In his house, indeed, a hundred teachers always reside, each displaying different duties and various heretical doctrines.
He, being established in scripture, is not mostly satisfied with the ascertainment of the principle of self regarding their state and birth after death.
There, the great sage named Pañcaśikha, a descendant of Kapila, after traversing the whole earth, also went to Mithilā.
When one has fully ascertained the true knowledge of all the duties of renunciation, with a well-settled purpose, free from dualities, and all doubts dispelled.
They say that the one who, having subdued desire among men, seeks the supreme eternal happiness, is very difficult to find.
The one whom the Sāṅkhyas call Kapila, the supreme sage and lord of creatures—he, I believe, in that very form, truly astonishes even himself.
They say that the first disciple of Asura, called the long-lived one, remains in the five-streamed river performing a sacrificial session for a thousand years.
Having approached him as he was seated in the great Kapila circle, (he) instructed about the unmanifest, the supreme reality in the state of puruṣa.
Devadarshana, the sage, having perfected himself by sacrificial sessions and again by austerity, understood the manifestation of the field and the knower of the field.
That one-syllabled Brahman, which appears in many forms, was realized as the imperishable by Āsuri in that circle.
Pañcaśikha, his disciple, was nourished with milk by a human woman. There was a Brāhmaṇa woman named Kapilā, who was a householder.
Having become her son, he drank at the woman's breasts. Thereafter, he attained the status of a Kapileya and acquired steadfast wisdom.
The venerable one told me this origin for Kāpileya. His state of being Kāpileya is that of unsurpassed omniscience.
Kapila, recognizing the highest knowledge of dharma as ordinary, approached a hundred teachers and bewildered them with arguments.
However, Janaka, being deeply drawn by seeing the Kapileyas, left behind a hundred teachers and followed him.
To him, the supreme adept who had bowed in accordance with dharma, he spoke of the supreme liberation, which is taught as Sāṅkhya philosophy.
He first spoke of dispassion towards birth, then indeed spoke of dispassion towards action. Having spoken of dispassion towards action, he then spoke of dispassion towards everything.
That for which actions are performed and their results arise is unreliable, futile, perishable, unstable, and impermanent.
When destruction is directly seen and witnessed by the world, even one who asserts, based on scripture, that the supreme exists, is defeated.
To regard the not-self as the self is truly the death, affliction, and decay of the self. Out of delusion, one considers the not-self as the self; this is not the correct supreme view.
Now, if it is so, which is not possible in the world, this one is ageless and immortal, and that king thinks so.
This notion of 'is' and 'is not'—if that characteristic does not exist, then upon what basis could one declare the certainty of how the world operates?
Direct perception is indeed the root of both conclusion and tradition. Direct perception is not different from scriptural authority, or conclusion is nothing at all.
Wherever inference is applied, whatever is done is also considered, or otherwise. According to the opinion of the atheists, another soul of the body is recognized.
Semen is soaked in a pellet ball cooked with ghee. Remembrance of previous birth, magnet, sunstone, and eating water are mentioned.
The conclusion is that after death, the passing away of a being, supplication to the deities, and cessation of ritual acts for the dead are considered authoritative.
But these are not the causes which are established in form. Indeed, there can be no commonality between the immortal and the mortal.
Some say that ignorance, actions, and activities are the cause of rebirth; but greed, delusion, and indulgence in faults are also causes.
They say ignorance is the field, action is the seed, and craving is the attachment that causes their rebirth.
When that mind, which is subject to death, departs and is burnt, another body is born from another; this is called the dissolution of being.
When he is different in form, type, sound, and meaning, how could the connection "he" exist here? Such a connection would be unconnected.
In such a situation, what affection can there be for gifts, knowledge, austerity, or strength? Whatever actions are performed by another, another attains all of them.
When this person here is seen by others, whether by ordinary people, by the happy or the sorrowful, it is difficult to determine his true state. 12-211-36.
Thus, even if the body is struck with pestles, it may be restored again; but the distinct knowledge and whatever else by which this is not perceived, cannot be attained.
Seasons, years, lunar days, cold and heat, and experiences of pleasure and pain—all these are seen as having passed by one whose vitality is diminished.
Just as in a house, the weakest part perishes first, so too, in one afflicted by old age, death, or destruction, the weakest succumbs first.
The senses, mind, vital air, blood, flesh, and bone, all perish in succession and return to their own elements.
The regulation of worldly conduct and the attainment of the results of charity and righteousness—these are the purposes for which the words of the Veda and worldly practices exist.
Thus, there are many causes in the mind; but nothing is truly apprehended as "this exists, this exists."
Among those who reflect in this way and rush after various things, sometimes the intellect settles somewhere, and there it withers like a tree.
In this way, all beings, afflicted by both fortune and misfortune, are led by external influences, just as elephants are driven by their mahouts.
Many beings, desiring objects that bring extreme happiness and are available without price, attain greater suffering; having abandoned the bait, they proceed to the power of death.
For one whose life is impermanent and perishable, what use are relatives, friends, and possessions? Whoever departs, leaving all behind, goes in a moment and does not return.
Earth, space, ether, water, fire, and air always sustain the body. Seeing this, how can there be pleasure in existence? For this body, which perishes twice, there is truly no happiness.
The king, astonished after observing this unconditional and unwavering statement, which was supreme, free from affliction, and self-evident, began once more to question.
