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CHAPTER IV
THE FIRST WORLD TEACHER
ऋषभं मासमानानां सपत्ननां विपा सहिं ।
cate' va vi zfa fansi mìftá narz 11
(Rig Veda X. 12. 166). [Tr. O Rudra-like Divinity! do thou produce amongst us, of high descent, a Great God, like Risabha Deva, by becoming Arhan, which is the epithet of the first World Teacher; let Him become the destroyer of the enemies!]-The Jaina Patha Pradarśaka, III. 3. 106.*
The reason why the Tirthamkaras are only four and twenty while the Perfect Ones (the Siddhas), who are like Them in all other respects, are innumerable, consists of two factors, one internal and the other external, -the aspiration to carry happiness and joy and enlightenment to all living beings on the part of the aspiring Soul, and the emulation of devas and men to glorify the WORLD TEACHER.
When six months of the long life of the
*The above is the English rendering of the reading by a learned Hindu Scholar, Prof. Virupaksha Beriyar, Veda Tirth, M.A.
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