Life of Purana Kassapa

The main concept of his philosophy is the non-efficacy (Akiriyavada) of action. He rejects the judgment of human actions in terms of good and bad. According to him there are no different actions called good and bad actions, they are only mere actions. They don’t produce relevant results as good and bad, therefore refraining from some action or performing some action as recommended by religions does not serve any special purpose. Human beings are free and autonomous to act at their will; limitations for encouragement of any particular form of actions have not any special use.

Purana kassapa also rejects the efficacy and the results of good actions, by performing any form of good actions, he says no any good results come by practicing charity, morality, sacrifice or mental development man does not get any good results or merit.

The philosophy of teachers like Purana kassapa was accepted by a big number of people. The reason for that was the heavy emphasis of Brahmanic yaga etc. He advocated non-efficacy of kamma on account of that he wanted to reject mainly the Brahmin social norms. For they did not see good and effective alternatives they reject the morality and ethics completely. They advocated non-efficacy of both good and bad action. Any way they were not only harmful to the religious teachings but also they were harmful for the general public