Rishabhayan: The Story of the First King

By Acharya Mahapragya

Foreword by Shivraj V. Patil
The story of Tirthankara Rishabha has passed down generations of Jains. Acharya Mahapragya, the tenth Acharya of the Jain Swetambar Terapanth, presents it to us in a composition of 2,000 verses. Tracing the evolution of human civilization as it grew from a society based on need to one attached to material possessions, the epic depicts the search for truth and the role of renunciation and sacrifice in it. As the first king, Rishabha does his primary duty of ensuring the well-being of his subjects. But then one spring morning, a small thought on the withering away of flowers triggers deep reflection in him: Is there more to life than reigning over a kingdom? To discover the meaning of life, he renounces his kingdom and wanders up to the Himalayas, thus introducing the idea of monkhood. With enlightenment comes the realization that all living beings have a soul that is indestructible and permanent and that true happiness lies in freedom from all attachment. Thus evolve the pillars of Jainism based on self-introspection and non-violence. Capturing the subtle dilemmas of the human soul caught in the mesh of existence, this translation by eminent translator Sudhamahi Regunathan offers the classic in a contemporary idiom, something to read aloud and savour for both the general reader and the scholar alike.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Element
• Release date: Dec 13, 2014
• ISBN: 9789351160083

Acharya Mahapragya

Acharya Mahapragya is one of the most celebrated Jain thinkers of the world and is the tenth Acharya of the Jain Shwetambar Terapanth sect. Born in 1920 in a village in Rajasthan, he became a monk at the age of ten. A multidimensional personality and a renowned scholar of Indian and Western philosophy and religion, Acharya Mahapragya is a prolific writer and has been called a 'modern Vivekananda'. He has traversed more than 100,000 km on foot and visited 10,000 villages to spread the message of non-violence. He was honoured with the Communal Harmony Award in 2004 for his contribution in this field.

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CANTO I

Every story is set in its own specific time and space and couched within the metaphors of its creators. Rishabhayan is the story of Rishabha, the first Tirthankara in the Jain tradition and told by a Jain Acharya. The poem begins with addressing the eternal question of how we came to be. Who made these mountains and the rivers running by? Who made our life and designed it so? Who made the birds that sing and the sun that shines? The search for an answer to these questions has also come to be known as the search for truth. Truth being elusive, the search continues and is continually enhanced by many schools of thought thus giving birth to philosophy and religion.

The Jain version of the story begins with the declaration that the story of our universe has neither a beginning nor an end. It does not even have a creator. According to Jain philosophy, there are six astikayas or states of matter which are made of a collection of molecules of the same state. They are: dharma-astikaya which supports motion, adharma astikaya which is the medium of rest, akash astikaya which provides accommodation, pudgal astikaya or matter which has attributes of colour, smell, taste and touch, kal astikaya, which is time, and jiva or the animate. That is what is referred to in ‘The causal collection of molecules.’

Jiva (animate) and ajiva (inanimate) is another important distinction in Jainism and so the word has been retained in the poem. Jiva literally means ‘living being’, ‘principle of life’ ( Monier Williams, Sanskrit English Dictionary, 1899: 422). However, the implicit sense in which jiva is understood in Jain philosophy is of being the soul. Ajiva is the inanimate principle. It does not have consciousness and cannot accumulate karmas. Dharma astikaya, adharma astikaya, akasha astikaya, pudgala astikaya and kal are categorized as ajiva.

The division between the jiva and the ajiva states is clear and there can be no movement from the ajiva state to the jiva. However, within the jiva state, on the basis of how pure and evolved the soul is, human life is said to exist in four states: naraki or those who live in hell, tiryancha or the animals, plants and similar beings, manushya or human beings, and deva or heavenly beings or those who access a better life full of luxuries and comfort and occupy the highest rung in the ladder of existence. The soul is reborn in one of the four categories depending on one’s karma. 

The fourth verse of the first canto, which talks of the motion in the leaves and the flapping wings of the birds in contrast to the state of rest of the tree trunk, refers to the first two astikayas (dharma and adharma). The seat of the birds refers to the idea of akshastikaya or that which provides accommodation. The fifth verse talks of time and that all changes that we see in this world are wrought by time. There is discussion in quite some length about why time, which cannot be broken down into atoms, is considered to be a basic state of matter. The reason given by Swetambar Jains is illustrated by Acharya Mahapragya in the verse where he says time enables transformation of not just matter into different forms called ‘modes’ or paryaya but also maintains the continuity of the soul which is eternal through finding different bodies as houses. Therefore since it helps in the activity of life, it is considered a basic state of matter.

The story we are about to read is set in the time period known as Sushma-Sushma.

Time, as we have seen above, is expressive of creation and destruction. This cycle of time thus follows two phases: Avasarpini, in which the destructive process is on and Utsarpini, in which the constructive forces are in action. Each of the phases have within them six divisions which are Sushma-Sushma, Sushma, Sushma-Dushma, Dushma-Sushma, Dushma and, finally, Dushma-Dushma. This is the order in which they occur in the Avasarpini phase, where Sushma is the progressive and prosperous phase while Dushma is the regressive and destructive phase.  For Utsarpini the order is reversed. The story recounted begins with the first stage of the Avasarpini phase which is Sushma-Sushma (it is believed we are currently in the Dushma phase).

There is a mention that people in the time of Sushma-Sushma used to live till infinity. That means they should still be around. The word used is palya, which is a measure of time. Palya is a period which cannot be measured. But if you wish to measure, the method is given in the Jain texts: a well four kos wide and deep. Fill that well with the hair of newly born twins. The infant’s hair is 1/2401 part of the width of an adult’s hair. This hair has to be broken into tiny bits and the well is to be filled with them. Every hundred years, if one small piece of hair is removed from the well, then the time taken to clear the well is one palya (Acharya Mahapragya, Jain Darshan, Manan aur Mimamsa, Adarsh Sahitya Sangh, 1995).

The poem begins with the words ‘salil satya hai’. Salil would normally translate as truth, but in this context it means that even though water exists and snow also exists, they are but two forms of the same entity. This first section is a concise exposition of the concept of anekanta or relativity which forms the basis of Jain philosophy. It says, in Acharya Mahapragya’s words, ‘As many as there are, their count will remain the same, the change of form is called transience.’ In other words, this is the Jain derivation of the theory that matter can neither be created nor destroyed.  The multiplicity of the things around us is a result of a change in their ‘mode’ or appearance, just like snow and water. In every element, there are three aspects of origination, destruction and permanence, which lead us to the thought that the seed of all possibilities exist in a thing. So in the infant itself youth and old age are waiting to be manifest. That is why Acharya Mahapragya defines anekanta also as the coexistence of opposites. Truth and untruth, he says, are partners.

Throughout Canto I, Acharya Mahapragya refers to anekanta off and on. Anekanta or relativity of truth has been not just Acharya Mahapragya’s theme for his books but also his life.

Going back to the story, we may say that once upon a time, in the period of Sushma-Sushma, there were few people on earth and they lived each for his own; they were not organized into a community or village or any such group. They were born as pairs and the pairs also mated with each other to bring forth yet another pair. Obviously, even then relationships like father and mother, brother and sister did exist but they were not bound by emotions. Life was quite simple. No one had to work for a living. Food was available in plenty and the people consumed food maybe once in three days and that too tiny portions.

All requirements were met by trees known as the Kalpavrikshas. Mythologically, the Kalpavriksha was believed to be the wish-fulfilling tree which could grant a person any object that he wished for. Ten types of trees meeting ten different needs have been mentioned in the Tanam (section 10, sutra 142) and they have been described in the canto. 

Now this blissful period gave way to the next which was Sushma and later Sushma-Dushma, one worse than the other. The whole story began with paucity. The Kalpavriksha was unable to meet the requirements of the people. So, as Acharya Mahapragya says, the desire to posses, greed and avarice came into existence. A leader was required who could organize the available material for equitable distribution. These leaders came to be known as the Kulkars or chieftains. There were seven of them: Vimlavahan and his wife Chandrayasha, Chakshuman and his wife Chandrakanta, Yashasvi and his wife Surupa, Abhichandra and his wife Pratirupa, Prasenajit and his wife Chaksushkrta, Marudev and his wife Srikanta, and Naabhi and his wife Marudev (Tanam, section 7, sutra 63.).

The art of administration was born. Punishment was the first tool. Initially remorse, hakar as it was called, was enough to control people. Soon they grew thick-skinned and one had to be a little more eloquent and direct admonishment was used. Not for too long was crime contained by admonishment alone and ‘man wore the skin of punishment closer’. The third tool was dhikkar or reprimand.

The canto ends with Naabhi, the last Kulkar, seeing a new future in meditation. A new order had to come to be—how much punishment can you impose, how many controls can you institute? Sometimes a whole new thought process is required to transform society.

Water exists, snow exists

Water the source, snow its form

Wind exists, water exists

Wind the source, water its form

Wind, water, snow—existential truths¹ are

Their atoms infinite and without beginning

Animal-human-heavenly being,² a cycle of changing forms

The soul, the source, of no end or beginning

Truth and untruth are partners

No exception to the rule

Rain is born of the cloud and that is destiny’s script

Who can change it, whose opinion counts?

Every branch, every leaf is

the seat of birds with flapping wings

The base unmoving, the fluttering leaves

Both together part of one single tree

Existence is not beyond time, nor

does it the past or future contain

It is the transformation wrought by time that turns

milk into ghee for oblation

Truth, untruth are words relative

No exception to this rule

In the infant, the youth, the youthful

Adult and a glimpse of old age are contained

Sentience and insentience, the two

are the only truths eternal

As many there are, their count will remain

The change of form is called the transience

The consuming sentient, the consumed insentient³

Filled with the two is the world

‘Was’, ‘is’, ‘will be’, in the courtyard

of these words, no sorrow of death will be

The world and its creation

The play of the sentient and the insentient

Creates the world’s variety, the birth of synonyms⁴

The eternal world, the enactment of creation

Is carried forth with collective efficiency

The causal collection of molecules⁵

Self-generating, timeless and infinite

Varied forms, diverse transformations

Autumn, cyclones and spring

Spread across sky-space, the atoms

Together make a collective entity

From which the jiva its body makes

And the golden form its brilliance attains

The jiva gets form anew with the body

So vast is the world of manifestations

Either infused with jiva or without

Is every branch on the tree

Earth, water, fire, air,

Plants—are all bodies imbued with jiva

Engulfed by matter all living beings are

As water is bound by the shores

In the theatre of life, these two actors,

Jiva and ajiva, are playing different games

Because of their varied modes and manifestations

Green and flourishing is the tree of life

Matter, resplendent, comes together with the jiva

and life is infused within it

And through that every activity

Of the sentient being is carried forth

The subtle transforms into the gross

And the gross then returns to the subtle

Unimaginable are the myriad transformations

Knowledge insentient, sentient the knower

India

In the incomparable limitless space

The sky is but a small dot

With the rays of the infinite particles of dawn

Cast wide is the net of light

Countless islands on this earth

One land mass is our blessed