Agam 08 Ang 08 Antkrutdashang Sutra Sthanakvasi

Author(s): Amarmuni, Shreechand Surana, Rajkumar Jain, Purushottamsingh Sardar
Publisher: Padma Prakashan

Page 439

Tirthankar Arishtanemi and Vaasuday Shrikrishna
These two great epoch-makers were contemporaries with social ties Arishtanem was a cousin of Shrikrishna. These two have been revered and glorified in both Vedic as well as Shraman traditions. The difference being that the Vedic tradition writes in great details about Shrikrishna and comparatively very little about Tirthankar Arishtanemi. However. wherever Tirthankar Arishtanemi has been mentioned, it has been with great respect and
reverence.
TIRTHANKAR AND VAASUDEV
Before knowing more about Tirthankar Arishtanemi and Vaasudev Shrikrishna it is necessary to know the meaning of the two terms Tirthankar and Vaasudev.
In the Vedic tradition there is total absence of the word Tirthankar In Rigveda. Yajurveda. Saamveda and other Vedic works Arishtanemi is mentioned with the epithet Tarkshya. This word is very similar to Tirthankar. because in the 25th mantra of the 9th chapter of Shukla Yajurveda, offerings have been given to Sarvajna Neminath, describing him as the propagator of Spiritual yajna, the preacher of truth to all worldly beings and whose sermon strengthen soul.
In the Same way in other Vedic works also, wherever the epithet arkshya has been used before Arishtanemi, it conveys the meaning of respected or revered.
Sull this is a fact that nowhere in Vedic scriptures Tirthankar word has been used.
The word Vaasudev has been used in Mahabharat. Puranic literature and other post Vedic works. It has been exclusively used for Shrikrishna and it means the son of Vasudev. Thus in the Vedic tradition we find only one Vaasudev.
Bhandarkar is of the view that there were two different Vaasudevs, one the propagator of the devotional sect and the other the preacher of Bhagvat religion. But Lokamanya Tilak. Hemchandra Roy Chowdhury. Keeth and other scholars reject this view and confirm that there was only one Vaasudey, the one who was popular as Shrikrishna.
According to the Jam tradition Tirthankar and Vaasudev are epithets indicating status. These are earned through austerities during earlier incarnations by a being. The difference between the two is that Vaasudev is a status acquired willfully and with desires (by means of austerities done with the desire of mundane attainments and happiness), whereas Tirthankar is a status acquired without any desire.
According to the Jain tradition, this regressive cycle of time had 9 Vaasudevs (who has acquired the status of Vaasudev and is master of the southern Bharat or halfchakravarti). Shrikrishna was the ninth or the last Vaasudev.
A Vaasudev acquires his status with the intention of worldly happiness, therefore he cannot indulge in ascetic practices. It appears that Jain and Vedic traditions have
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