His Mother's Freedom

When Devahūti had heard her son, the covering of bewilderment fell from her. She bowed to him and praised him. She marvelled that he who holds the whole world within him had been held within her. How can it be, she said, that you, in whose belly the whole world lies, who at the end of the age lie alone on a banyan leaf as a little child sucking your own foot, were carried in my womb? Even an outcaste on whose tongue your name rests is worthy of honour, for those who call your name have already done every austerity, made every offering, bathed at every holy place and studied the Veda. I bow to you, Viṣṇu, Kapila, the supreme Brahman.

Mother, Kapila said, if you hold to this road I have shown you, which is not hard to follow, you will soon reach its end. Trust my teaching. By it you will come to me, where there is no fear. Then, having shown his mother the true road, he took leave of her and went away.

Devahūti stayed in that hermitage on the Sarasvatī, and in no long time, by the road Kapila had shown her, she reached the Lord, the supreme Self. The place where she reached her attainment became the holiest place in the three worlds, and it is called Siddhapada, the Place of Attainment.

Kapila went out from his father's hermitage towards the north-east. The perfected ones, the gandharvas, the sages and the apsarases praised him, and the ocean honoured him and gave him a place to dwell. There he stays, deep in yoga, praised by the teachers of Sāṃkhya, so that the three worlds may have peace.