Bhagavata Purana
by G. V. Tagare | 1950 | 780,972 words | ISBN-10: 8120838203 | ISBN-13: 9788120838208
This page describes Rishabha quits His body which is chapter 6 of the English translation of the Bhagavata Purana, one of the eighteen major puranas containing roughly 18,000 metrical verses. Topics include ancient Indian history, religion, philosophy, geography, mythology, etc. The text has been interpreted by various schools of philosophy. This is the sixth chapter of the Fifth Skandha of the Bhagavatapurana.
Go directly to: Footnotes.
Chapter 6 - Ṛṣabha quits His body
[Sanskrit text for this chapter is available]
The King said:
1. The Yogic powers which accrue unsolicited to persons who realise bliss in their Self and who have burnt down the seeds of their karmas (leading to future bondage), through the fire of knowledge, inflamed and fanned by yoga, do not lead to miseries. (Then why did Ṛṣabha not like them?)
The sage (Śrī Śuka) said:
2. Your observation is true. But there are some intelligent persons in this world who are not at all prepared to trust
their fickle mind like a wily hunter would do about a deer (even though trapped by him).[1]
It has also been observed thus:
3. One should never form friendship with (i.e. place trust iṅ) the fickle and changeful mind. It is through such (blind) trust in the mind that the penance of Śiva (at the sight of god Viṣṇu in the Mohinī form)[2] or that of great ascetics (like Saubhari[3]) which was accumulated for a long period, was totally lost.
4. Just as a faithless wife would give entry (to her paramours in her husband’s house to get him murdered), the mind of a yogin who has formed friendship with it, always leaves loopholes to lust and other enemies (like anger, delusion etc.) to enter.
5. What wise man would regard his mind as obedient and trustworthy to him, for it is the mind which is the source of lust, anger, pride, greed, sorrow, delusion, fear and which binds him down with karmas?
6. Though he (Lord Ṛṣabha) was the ornament of all the protective deities of the world, his divine grandeur remained unnoticed due to his strange stupid-like dress, speech and behaviour like an avadhūta (an ascetic who has renounced all worldly attachments and connections). He desired to give up his body with a view to instruct the yogins in the method of quitting this mortal body. He realised that the Supreme Spirit directly abiding in him was absolutely one with him without a second. Being free from the continuity of the vāsanās or effects of past deeds, he became free from his subtle body, shedding off his (conceptual) identification with the liṅga śarīra (subtle body).
7. The body of Lord Ṛṣabha who was free and detached from his subtle body, roamed over the world through the semblance of egotism caused by virtue of the unconscious effects of his yogic powers. As willed by Providence, he traversed Koṅka, Veṅka, Kuṭaka and South Karṇāṭaka[4] countries. In the jungle near mount Kuṭaka, he holding a piece of stone in his mouth and with dishevelled hair, wandered like a madman.
8. Then a fearful forest conflagration created by the friction of bamboos tossed by the velocity of winds, burnt down the forest along with his body.
9. Verily, in the Kali Age, when unrighteousness will rule supreme, there will be a foolish king named Arhat, ruling over the territories of Koṅka, Veṅka and Kuṭaka. Learning about the strange way of the life of Ṛṣabha, he will (try to) study and adopt it. As a result of the accumulated sins of the previous life of the people, as fate would have it, he(Arhat) being deluded, will give up the path of his own dharma which is free from fear or danger in every way. Out of his whim, he will propagate the wrong, and absurd way of the heretics.
10. By that (propagation of the heretical creed), in the Kali Age, wretched people, being deluded by the Māyā potency (power of delusion) of God, will (neglect and) be devoid of the purity, cleanliness and good conduct enjoined upon them by their scriptural injunctions. With their intelligence stupefied by the Kali Age wherein unrighteousness predominates, they, of their respective individual free will, will adopt wrong and corrupt vows involving contempt of gods, abstention from bath, ācamana (sipping of water before religious ceremonies etc.), neglect of cleanliness, plucking out hair (from the head instead of shaving) and such others. They will generally condemn the Vedas, Brāhmaṇas, Lord Viṣṇu (the presiding deity of sacrifices) and the world.
11. Believing in the blind tradition about the new way of life chosen by them but which is unsupported by the Vedas, they of their own accord will fall into dark abysmal hell.
12. This incarnation (of Lord Viṣṇu as Ṛṣabha) was intended for instructing people (who are) immersed in the Rajoguṇa, in the way of Liberation.
They (people) sing the (following) verses describing Ṛṣabha’s excellent qualities:
13. Oh! This sub-continent (Bhāratavarṣa) is the sacred-most in all sub-continents (Varṣas) and island-continents (dvīpas) of the earth which is engirdled with seven seas; for people hereof sing of the auspicious deeds of Murāri (Lord Viṣṇu, slayer of the demon Mura)—deeds associated with his (Viṣṇu’s) incarnation.
14. How lucky is the race of Priyavrata of pure and sacred glory! In it (Viṣṇu), the Ancient Person took an incarnation (of Lord Ṛṣabha). The First Personage observed that path of religion which became the cause of Liberation (lit. non-action).
15. Is there any other yogi who can even mentally follow the direction of this birthless Lord (Ṛṣabha)? For the yogic powers, to attain which other Yogis strive covetously, were discarded by him as unreal and illusory, even though the powers automatically accrued to him.
16. Thus has been narrated to you the pious (and sanctifying) life of the Lord, by name Ṛṣabha, who was the most venerable to all the Vedas, the worlds (people), gods Brāhmaṇas and cows. It completely cleanses all impious actions of men (who devoutly listen to or recite it). It is the abode of the highest auspiciousness and supreme bliss. He who, with rapt attention and increasing faith, listens to it or recites it to others, unswerving devotion into venerable Vāsudeva is developed in them.
17. It is in bhakti (devotion and not in yoga etc.) that wise men continuously steep their Soul, tormented as it is with the scorching heat in the form of miseries of the worldly life (saṃsāra) full of manifold sins. They do not at all evince any regard or desire for the final beatitude though it is the highest Puruṣārtha, (objective in human life), despite its being automatically obtained. For, being worshippers of the Lord, they have ipso facto completely achieved all the Puruṣārthas (highest objects of human pursuits).
18. Oh King! Of you Pāṇḍavas and Yadus; the venerable Lord is the protector, preceptor, the deity to be worshipped, a friend and well-wisher, the controller of your family, and occasionally even a servant (e.g. an ambassador to the Court of Duryodhana). May it be as it is. But Lord Kṛṣṇa (Mukunda) awards Liberation to his worshippers, but not loving devotion (to him).
19. Salutation to the venerable Lord Ṛṣabha who is free from desires due to his eternal realization of his own Self, and who, out of compassion for the world, explained the fearless nature of the self to the people (or the world) whose mental capacity is lost in sleep (ignorance) for a long time, as it is engrossed in desires of the body and its property.
Footnotes and references:
[2]:
Vide infra 8.12.24-32
[3]:
Vide infra 9.6.39-52.
[4]:
Bhāgavata Candrikā and Padaratnāvalī identify Koṅka with Koṅkaṇa, the narrow strip of land between the Western ghats and the Arabian sea. Veṅka improbably Veṅkaṭādri, the Tirupathi hill.
Padaratnāvalī states: Ṛṣabha travelled from the land irrigated by the Bhīmā and Southern Karṇāṭaka to Saurāṣṭra and thence to the east of Nagpur where near the ‘Uttarā’ river there is the Kuṭaka hill. Obviously Padaratnāvalī is guessing. N. L. De identifies Kuṭaka with Gadag in Dharwar district. GDA. MI. 112.