He is universal metabolic principle
Maharishi Kashyap is perhaps the most popular of the Saptarishis as varying derivatives of his name are found across the globe.
Right from Perisian’s kasaf to Kashaf Rud in Turkmenistan and Polish kacap to Kashmir, every variation more or less links to the Sanskrit word Kashyap—means the hard-shelled tortoise.
Believe it or not, the rishi finds a prominent and reverential mention in the Buddhistic text Digha Nikay and Sikh’s Dassam Grandh as Kasyapa, Mahakasyapa and rishi Kashyapa respectively, besides his prominent place in the Rig Ved, Atharveda, Brihadaranyak Upanishad and the puranas.
Kashayp’s Kashmir links
According to various international scholars, Kashmir has been derived from the compound word Kashyapa + Mir, which means the lake of Kashyapa. Some link it to Kashyapa Meru, meaning the sacred mountains of Kashyapa. Ancient Greece texts mention the word Kasperia, discovered during the expedition of Alexander the Great. This is probably a distortion of KashyapaMir. Some Purana carry a legend in his name which means Kashyapa had washed the Kashmir valley to make it inhabitable, which is allegorically related to his exhaustive teachings whose gushing flow removed prevailing ignorance from the people’s mind and re-energised their life as evolved human beings. The place Multan, which is in Pakistan now, is a distortion of the Sanskrit term Moolasthan—simultaneously known as Kashyappura, as the river Kashyapa flows through the area. Some legends say that the rishis’ ashrama was located in Kashmir which was built after reclaiming the land from a vast sea. Kashas in Sanskrit means water and Mir, its limits, or the limit of the sea.
What is the principle?
In all these legends and derivatives, the word Kashyap is closely related to two things — water and land. These two things are represented by the sea animal Kashyap or tortoise. Therefore, Kashyap has something to do with the water and the land principles. If we get hold of that principle, we will be able to relate everything and understand the representation of the scientific principle by the rishi. The land represents the stability or cessation of flow that is represented by the water. The earth and water relationship in principle is that the earth limits the water and the water floods the earth. They are inseparable. The water represents the flow of energy and the earth represents the culmination of that energy. Kinetic energy converting into potential energy and potential energy converting back into kinetic energy is what is represented by rishi Kashyap in principle. Bhagwan Krishna defines Kashyap as adhiyagya in Chapter 8 of the Bhagwad Gita. अधियज्ञोऽहंमेवात्र देहे… I am the sustainer in the body.
His metabolic links
He represents a finer energy management in the universe and within the body. Definitely there is a scientific link to this phenomenon to the land of mountains, rivers and valleys—Kashmir. Kashas means water and Mir means the sea or the finality of the water or its limit, its culmination. Anything which flows finally collects into something. That place of collection is called Mir—the limit, the sea. The legend that says Kashyap drained the valley and removed the ignorance of the people directly points to this scientific principle of metabolism. Any student of physiology will know what I am trying to say. The flow of breath collects into the lungs and then is drained out, expelled, exhaled from the nostrils to regain more fresh air. The flow of blood collects into the heart and then re-oxygenated and distributed throughout the system. What you eat or drink flows through a canal, collects into the stomach, sprayed with various chemicals, absorbed as refined energy, redistributed and the residual is thrown out. All this body metabolism is just the imitation of what is happening in our universe—the principal which the sun, the moon and the earth are bound in with. The sun heats up, the earth, mountains of snow flow into water streams, the water collects into the sea, goes up as clouds, bursts as rain and the natural metabolic cycle goes on to maintain our environment. You all know that. Therefore, rishi Kashyap represents the principles of energy management which keeps us going. When you read various stories, legends and folklores about Kahsyap in this light, you will immediately get to the truth of it all. The tortoise represents this principle equally. A part of his yearly cycle is spent swimming, a part in hibernating and a part basking in the sun on the land! This also represents the same metabolic process—swimming represents flow of energy, hibernation represents collection of that energy and sun basking, the shower of fresh energy, which keeps it going! If you have mastered the principles of Kashyap then you will be as strong as a tortoise. In the Atharvaveda, there are many allegorical references made to Kashyap, which primarily link him to the metabolism of the body in connection with the universe.
Kashyap on himself
He says in the Mahabharata’s Anushasan Parva that kashya means body and the one who sustains it, maintains it is called Kashyap. He is the principle which sustains the body. Now anything which represents three principles of energy—creation, maintenance and destruction, has a body. Whether it is the universe, the sun, the moon, the earth, the waterbodies, the animal kingdom, human colonies or your own body, all are bodies according to the principles of energy. Kashyap is the principle which maintains it all. That means he is the principle which keeps and sustains your body and your environment on the same principles. Yes, don’t be surprised when the scientists one day say the sun breathes, the sea breathes and the moon too breathes, the galaxies too are breathing, the entire cosmos is breathing. This will happen when we begin to see the subtle principles of breathing and not just the gross ones—inhaling and exhaling.
कुलं कुलं च कुवम: कुवम: कश्यपो द्विज:।
काश्य: काशनिकाशत्वादेतन्मे नाम धारय॥
Kashayap says about himself, “I protect every body by residing it as a principle of maintenance, that is why I am called Kashyap. The sun represents my principle which makes rain happen on the earth, that is why I am called kuvamah. Ku means ‘on the earth’ vamah means showers That together is called kuvamah, the principle of universal metabolism! My colour is like that of the flower of Kash (sun bright flower), that too is the reason why I am called Kashyap.” In the last definition, Kashyap defines himself as the principle of sunlight, which doesn’t have a discernible colour or form, but which inspires and shines everything it falls upon. The same way the energy principle is. It shines up the one who follows it. Basically, the word kash in Sanskrit means anything that flows, stays and repeats afresh. It is water, it is light, it is air and it is the vibration, the sound that echoes (comes back)
Kahsyap and green
Wherever there is flow, there must be friction and wherever there is friction, there must be fire and wherever there is fire, there must be light and smoke! When the smoke and soot from fire deposits in any body system, it is toxic and anti-metabolic. This toxin is called kashmal (kash + mal) in Sanskrit, meaning the toxic residual of friction! The kashyap principle aims at removing this kashmal and ensure the flow of energy in the body and outside it in the atmosphere. By this definition, Kashmir is a place where you naturally get rid of your toxins.
Environmentalists say humans are polluting the atmosphere. They are wrong. The humans are polluted first. they just extend that pollution outside. Therefore, the real green revolution will come only when we follow the Kashyap principle within the body and without it!
Vivek Sharma