શ્રી ઋષભદેવ (આદિનાથ): જીવન અને કથાઓ

Every Tirthankar's soul walks a long path before the last birth. For Rishabhdev, the tradition counts thirteen births from the moment he first gained samyaktva, the right faith.

A rich caravan leader, Dhanna, took a group of munis led by Acharya Dharmaghosh with his caravan. The monsoon held them in the forest and he forgot them. When he remembered, full of remorse, he offered them pure ghee with great devotion. That gift with a pure heart brought him samyaktva: the first step on the path.

He was born as a yugalik in Uttarkuru, where wish-fulfilling trees meet every need, and then as a dev in the Saudharma devlok.

As the vidyadhar king Mahabal he lived in pleasure until his minister Swayambuddh awakened him to dharma; he took up anashan in his last days. He was then born as Lalitang, a dev of the Ishan devlok, whose consort was Swayamprabha.

Lalitang was born as King Vajrajangh and Swayamprabha as Shrimati, and they recognised each other from their past life. Together they offered food to munis with deep devotion. The soul of Shrimati would later be Shreyans Kumar, who gave the Prabhu his first gochari.

He was again a yugalik in Uttarkuru, and then a dev of the Saudharma devlok.

As the physician Jivanand he and five friends found a muni whose body was covered in a painful skin disease. They bought a precious ratna-kambal and gosirsh chandan, and with lakshapak oil healed the muni, who kept his equanimity throughout. Their seva bore great punya.

He was born as a dev in the twelfth devlok, Achyut.

In Mahavideh he was the chakravarti Vajranabh. He gave up his empire, took diksha, and through deep aradhana of the twenty sthanak bound the Tirthankar naam karma.

He was born in Sarvarthasiddh, the highest of the anuttar vimans, from where a soul comes down for its last birth.

On Jeth Vad 4 his soul came down into the womb of Marudevi Mata, wife of Nabhi Kulkar, at the end of the third ara. She saw the fourteen great dreams; the first was a bull, so the child was named Rishabh, and a bull is his chinh.

He was born on Fagan Vad 8. The 56 dikkumaris attended the birth and the 64 Indras performed the janmabhishek on Meru. Saudharmendra came carrying sugarcane (ikshu), and the child reached for it; so his family was named the Ikshvaku vansh.

Indra arranged his marriage to Sumangala and Sunanda, the first wedding of this age, and the people learned the custom from it. As the wish-fulfilling trees gave less and quarrels grew, the yugaliks asked for a ruler. Indra crowned Rishabh the first king, and Kuber built the city of Vinita (Ayodhya). Sumangala's children were Bharat and Brahmi with 98 more sons; Sunanda's were Bahubali and Sundari.

As the kalpavruksh faded, people did not know how to live. Rishabhdev taught them to grow grain and to cook it on fire; to show them a pot, he shaped the first one on the forehead of an elephant. He taught asi (the sword, to protect), masi (ink: writing and accounts) and krishi (farming), and a hundred crafts beginning with the potter's, the smith's, the painter's, the weaver's and the barber's. This is why he is called the Adi-purush, the one who began the ways of the world.

With his right hand he taught Brahmi the eighteen scripts, and the oldest Indian script is still called Brahmi after her. With his left hand he taught Sundari ganit, the science of numbers.

He taught Bharat the 72 arts of men and Bahubali the knowledge of the signs of men and animals, and to women he gave the 64 arts. In this way the whole order of a settled life began with him.

A well-loved story tells that the apsara Nilanjana was dancing in his court when her life ended in the middle of the dance, and seeing how fleeting life is, the king turned to renunciation. This account comes mainly from the Digambar Adipuran; the Shwetambar texts tell that the Lokantik devs came to request the Prabhu to set up the tirth. Please follow your guru's telling.

After a year of giving (varshidaan), on Fagan Vad 8 he took diksha in the Siddharth van, together with four thousand kings. He pulled out his hair in four handfuls; when Indra asked him to leave the last lock, he did, and that is why his images show locks of hair on the shoulders.

No one yet knew how to give alms to a muni. People offered him gems, horses, elephants and even their daughters, but no pure food, and the Prabhu walked on in silence. The four thousand who had taken diksha with him could not bear the hunger and became forest ascetics. Tradition says this long fast came from an antaray karma of a past life, in which he had muzzled bullocks so that they could not eat.

After more than a year, the Prabhu came to Hastinapur. Shreyans Kumar, his great-grandson, saw him and remembered his past life as Shrimati, when he had given food to munis. He knew at once what was pure to give, and offered fresh sugarcane juice. On Vaishakh Sud 3 the Prabhu broke his fast from Shreyans's hands, and the devs showered the five wonders. The day is Akshay Tritiya, and the varshitap that Jains keep today ends with an ikshu-ras parna on this day, in memory of that first gochari.

After about a thousand years of sadhana, on Maha Vad 11 he attained kevalgyan under a vad tree at Purimtal. The devs built the samavasaran, and the first tirth of this age was set up.

Marudevi Mata had wept for her son for a thousand years. Bharat brought her on an elephant to see the samavasaran. Seeing her son's glory and his complete detachment, her attachment melted; still seated on the elephant she attained kevalgyan and moksha, the first soul of this avsarpini to become a siddha.

Bharat's son Rishabhsen, known as Pundarik, became the first of 84 ganadhars. Brahmi led the sadhvis, and the sangh of sadhu, sadhvi, shravak and shravika was set up for the first time in this age.

Bharat conquered the six parts of Bharat kshetra with his chakra ratna, but on his return the chakra would not enter the armoury: his brothers had not yet accepted him. The 98 younger brothers went to the Prabhu, heard his deshna to awaken (sambujjhah), and all took diksha.

Bahubali of Takshashila would not bow. To spare the armies, the two brothers fought alone, in five duels of sight, voice, arms, fists and staff, and Bahubali won each. In anger Bharat sent the chakra, but a chakra does not strike one's own family and it returned. Bahubali raised his fist to strike back, then stopped: with that same fist he pulled out his hair and took diksha.

Bahubali would not go to the Prabhu, because he would have to bow to his younger brothers, who were senior to him in diksha. He stood in kaussagg for a year, so still that vines climbed his body and birds nested in his hair. The Prabhu sent Brahmi and Sundari, who sang to him: brother, come down from the elephant; no one attains kevalgyan sitting on an elephant. He understood that the elephant was his pride. As he lifted his foot to go and bow, he attained kevalgyan.

Bharat ruled as the first chakravarti. One day in his hall of mirrors a ring slipped from his finger, and he saw how plain the finger looked without it. Reflecting that beauty belongs to nothing that is put on, he attained kevalgyan where he stood.

On Posh Vad 13, at the end of a six-day fast, Rishabhdev attained nirvan on Mount Ashtapad together with ten thousand munis. Bharat built there the Sinhanishadya prasad with images of all twenty-four Tirthankars.

The Prabhu came to Shatrunjay ninety-nine purva times, which is why the 99 yatra is done there. His first ganadhar, Pundarik Swami, attained moksha on Shatrunjay with five crore munis on Chaitra Purnima, and the hill is also called Pundarikgiri.

Bharat asked whether anyone in the samavasaran would be a Tirthankar. The Prabhu pointed to Marichi, Bharat's son, who would become the first Vasudev, a chakravarti in Mahavideh, and the twenty-fourth Tirthankar, Mahavir Swami. Marichi grew proud of it, and that pride lengthened his sansar: a lesson every Jain hears.