Kapila
Watercolour painting on paper of Kapila, a Vedic sage.
Titles/honours	Hindu sources describe him as a descendant of Manu.
Philosophy	Samkhya

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v t e

Kapila (Hindi: कपिल ऋषि) was a Vedic sage credited as one of the founders of the Samkhya school of philosophy. He is prominent in the Bhagavata Purana, which features a theistic version of his Samkhya philosophy.^[1] Traditional Hindu sources describe him as a descendant of Manu, a grandson of Brahma. The Bhagavad Gita depicts Kapila as a yogi hermit with highly developed siddhis, or spiritual powers.

Many of the details about sage Kapila's life are described in Book 3 of the Bhagavata Purana, where it is mentioned that his parents were Kardama Muni and Devahuti. Kapila is considered an incarnation of the supreme-being (Narayana) and listed as such in the list of incarnations in Bhagavata Purana .After his father left home, Kapila instructed his mother, Devahuti in the philosophy of yoga and devotional worship of Lord Vishnu, enabling her to achieve liberation (moksha). Kapila's Sankhya is also given by Krishna to Uddhava in Book 11 of the Bhagavata Purana, a passage also known as the "Uddhava Gita".^[2]

Kapila is also mentioned by Krishna in the Bhagavad Gita:

Of all trees I am the banyan tree, and of the sages among the demigods I am Narada. Of the Gandharvas I am Citraratha, and among perfected beings I am the sage Kapila.(10.26)

Birth of the Ganges[link]

The sons of Sagara discover the stolen sacrificial horse grazing near Vasudeva, who had assumed the form of Kapila

Kapila is a major figure in the story associated with the descent of the Ganges (Ganga) river from heaven. King Sagar, an ancestor of Rama, had performed the Aswamedha yagna ninety-nine times. On the hundredth time the horse was sent around the earth Indra, the King of Heaven, grew jealous and kidnapped the horse, hiding it in the hermitage of Kapila.^[3]

The 60,000 sons of Sagara found the horse, and believing Kapila to be the abductor assaulted him. Kapila turned his assailants to ashes. Anshuman, a grandson of King Sagara, came to Kapila begging him to redeem the souls of Sagara's 60,000 sons. Kapila replied that only if the Ganges descended from heaven and touched the ashes of the 60,000 would they be redeemed.^[4] The Ganges was eventually brought to earth, redeeming the sons of Sagara, through the tapasya of King Bhagiratha.

Teachings[link]

Kapila's Samkhya is taught in various Hindu texts:

Mahabharata[link]

• "Kapila said, "Acts only cleanse the body. Knowledge, however, is the highest end (for which one strives). 5 When all faults of the heart are cured (by acts), and when the felicity of Brahma becomes established in knowledge, benevolence, forgiveness, tranquillity, compassion, truthfulness, and candour, abstention from injury, absence of pride, modesty, renunciation, and abstention from work are attained. These constitute the path that lead to Brahma. By those one attains to what is the Highest." (Book 12: Santi Parva: Mokshadharma Parva: Section CCLXX, p. 270-271).

• "Bhishma said (to Yudhisthira), 'Listen, O slayer of foes! The Sankhyas or followers of Kapila, who are conversant with all paths and endued with wisdom, say that there are five faults, O puissant one, in the human body. They are Desire and Wrath and Fear and Sleep and Breath. These faults are seen in the bodies of all embodied creatures. Those that are endued with wisdom cut the root of wrath with the aid of Forgiveness. Desire is cut off by casting off all purposes. By cultivation of the quality of Goodness (Sattwa) sleep is conquered, and Fear is conquered by cultivating Heedfulness. Breath is conquered by abstemiousness of diet. (Book 12: Santi Parva: Part III, Section CCCII.) ^[5]

Bhagavata Purana[link]

• "My appearance in this world is especially to explain the philosophy of Sankhya, which is highly esteemed for self-realization by those desiring freedom from the entanglement of unnecessary material desires. This path of self-realization, which is difficult to understand, has now been lost in the course of time. Please know that I have assumed this body of Kapila to introduce and explain this philosophy to human society again." (3.24.36-37)

• "When one is completely cleansed of the impurities of lust and greed produced from the false identification of the body as "I" and bodily possessions as "mine," one's mind becomes purified. In that pure state he transcends the stage of so-called material happiness and distress." (3.25.16)

See also[link]

• Narada
• Vyasa
• Bhakti Yoga
• Samkhya
• Kapila Theertham
• Kaul Village
• kolayat

References[link]

External links[link]

• The Sánkhya Aphorisms of Kapila, 1885 translation by James R. Ballantyne, edited by Fitzedward Hall.

v t e Avatars of Vishnu Dashavatara Matsya Kurma Varaha Narasimha Vamana Parashurama Rama Krishna Balarama1 Buddha1 Kalki Other avatars Catursana Narada Nara-Narayana Kapila Dattatreya Yajna Rishabha Prithu Dhanvantari Mohini Vyasa Prsnigarbha Hayagriva Hamsa 1 Buddha or Balarama is considered the avatar of Vishnu, depending on the tradition. In North India, Buddha is included and in South India, Balarama.

Mukesh Kapila CBE has worked extensively and advised in crisis and conflict management, humanitarian affairs, post-conflict recovery and development, and HIV and AIDS. Kapila is currently Special Representative for the Aegis Trust.^[1]

Biography[link]

Kapila's background is in medicine, public health and, subsequently, international development and humanitarian affairs. He has qualifications from the Universities of Oxford and London.

As a mid-level civil servant in 1994, he was part of the first British teams to see the aftermath of the Rwandan Genocide after entering Rwandan Patriotic Front-controlled Kigali.^[2]

He was the Deputy Director of the National UK AIDS programme during the 1990s.^{[citation needed]}

He was Head of Conflict and Humanitarian Affairs unit of the British Department for International Development from 1998 to 2002. From 2002-2003, Kapila was a Special Adviser to the United Nations, first to the Special Representative of the Secretary General in Afghanistan and then to the High Commissioner for Human Rights. In 2003-2004 Kapila was the United Nations Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator, and the UN Development Program Resident Representative for the Sudan.

While stationed in Sudan, he was outspoken in his condemnation of the human rights abuses being committed in the western region of Darfur. His activism began after a Darfuri woman came to his office to tell him how she, her daughter and 200 other women in the village of Tawilla had been gang-raped and mostly murdered by government soldiers and paramilitaries.^[2] His reports about the Darfur conflict were at the time dismissed by the Government of Sudan as a "a heap of lies", though they succeeded in bringing Darfur to the attention of the world's media for the first time. Kapila was subsequently transferred out of Sudan in April 2004, only 13 months into a 24 month assignment.^[3] Commenting in 2006 on this period, Kapila stated:

There is debate about whether we had genocide in Darfur or not, but certainly in my mind, and the mind of many, many people, I think there is very little doubt that what went on in Darfur in 2003 and the early part of 2004 was certainly genocide. We can argue the words, but that would be no consolation to those people who are affected.
So I subsequently went on to speak about it publicly, having tried the various diplomatic routes and avenues, and I soon found myself hauled onto a plane out of Khartoum. And as I reflected back on it, I thought to myself that there I was presiding over the first genocide of the 21st century – it is a place in history you don’t wish to have.^[2]

Kapila has won several awards for his humanitarian and development work. In 2003, he was honored by Queen Elizabeth II and named a Commander of the Order of the British Empire for his international service.^[4] In 2007 he received the Dr Jean Mayer Global Citizenship Award of the Institute for Global Leadership.

He was a Director in the Department of Health Action in Crises of the World Health Organization (2004 to 2006). An employee of the Government of the United Kingdom, he was on secondment to the United Nations. He was an Adviser to the World Bank on climate change issues, has advised the United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (UN/ISDR), and the International Labour Organization. He was the chief executive of PHG Foundation in Cambridge, UK from September 2003 to August 2004.

Prior to his appointment as Special Representative for the Aegis Trust, Kapila was the Under Secretary General for National Society and Knowledge Development at the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC). Earlier he served as the Special Representative for HIV and AIDS,^[5] and subsequently as Special Representative to the Secretary General of the IFRC. While at IFRC, Kapila has been instrumental in developing worldwide “global alliances” of the Red Cross Red Crescent such as HIV and disaster risk reduction, where successful scale-up has been achieved. More recently, he has been responsible for formulating Strategy 2020 - the International Federation's vision for the next decade.

He has served as an Advisory Board member of the Geneva Centre for the Democratic Control of Armed Forces (DCAF), and of Minority Rights Group International, and Executive Committee Member of the Alliance for Direct Action against Rape in Conflicts and Crises (AllianceDARC). He has been a member of the Board of Trustees of the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR), the International Peace Academy (IPA) and of the United Nations Disaster Assessment and Co-ordination (UNDAC) system.

Dr. Kapila is presently a Senior Member of Hughes Hall College, Cambridge University, UK. He is also an Associate Fellow at the Humanitarian and Conflict Response Institute, Manchester University, UK.

Kapila resides in the United Kingdom and Switzerland.

See also[link]

• Jan Pronk

Notes and references[link]

External links[link]

• SUDAN: Interview with Mukesh Kapila, UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator, IRIN, 20 June 2003