Matharavritti 2.4

2.4

Here indeed, the revered great sage—endowed with innate virtue, knowledge, dispassion, and lordship, an incarnation of the blessed ancient Spirit wishing to show grace to the world—was born to Devahūti, daughter of the Manu Svāyambhuva, as the son of the Prajāpati Kardama, named Kapila. Endowed with that comprehension which consists of the perception of the difference between the constituents and the spirit—like a supporting hand for one wishing to see the boundless shore, like an ambrosial gem for a world constantly bitten by the serpent of time, like a correct medicine for dispelling the hard-to-cure disease of existence, like a lamp for destroying the darkness of ignorance, like an axe for cutting down the tree of delusion that blocks the path to liberation—he saw this world sinking in blinding darkness. Seeing that, compassion arose in him: "Alas! This world, bound [to rebirth] from beginningless time, abides in blinding darkness by its very nature!"
Then this great ascetic, compassion having arisen in him, felt concern in his mind: "How can grace be extended to this wretched universe abiding in blinding darkness?" Reflecting thus, knowing a certain distinguished Brahmin of the Āsuri lineage, who had been performing sacrifices for a thousand years, to be an eligible student through the science of instruction on Brahman, he became unwearied and uttered these words: "O Āsuri, do you delight in the duty of a householder?" He said to him: "I delight [in it], sir." Addressed thus, the sage, concluding that "his discrimination and dispassion are slightly incomplete," departed; and returning again when a second thousand years was completed, he spoke in the very same way: "O Āsuri, do you delight in the duty of a householder?" He said to him: "I delight [in it], sir." Then that lord of great ascetics departed just as before, and approaching when a third thousand years was completed, he said: "O Āsuri, do you delight in the duty of a householder?" He said to him: "I do not delight [in it], sir." Then he was asked by the venerable one: "Why?" Āsuri said again: "From the assault of the threefold suffering." Then Kapila said: "My dear, if you are willing to lead the life of celibacy, then we will teach the remedy for this threefold suffering." He said: "Revered sir, certainly, I am able to follow the command of your reverence." Thus abandoning the duty of a householder, his sons, wife, and so forth, he renounced the world and became a pupil, indeed dear as life, to the venerable teacher Kapila, the ascetic.
In that regard, if someone should ask: "Whence did his desire to know arise, by which he went to the house of a teacher?" To that, this is the reply: The desire to know arose from the assault of the threefold suffering. Thinking: "Who is supreme here? What is the true nature [of reality]? What is the highest good? What should I do to achieve my purpose?", he went to the house of a teacher. For it is said: