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શાશ્વત સૌરભ ભાગ-૧
૧૬૫
leader of the social and religions renaissance in India. He introduced various reforms for promoting the welfare of the people. The greatest problem was that of food which confronted the people in Ayodhya. He, therefore, invented the science of agriculture. He discovered the sugarcane plant. Because of his discovery of the sugarcane, his progenies came to be know as IKSWAKUS, the royal clan which played a prominent part in subsequent centuries. Almost all the illustrious kings of India mentioned in the Puranas and the epics including Sri Rama were IKSWAKUS Rishabha educated the people on arts, both higher and lesser, for promoting their welfare. He made script called brahmi. All the Askoan inscriptions found on pillars and rocks, and some of the inscriptions found in caves of South India and other parts of the country were inscribed in Bramhi. This script is considered as the root of all other scripts in India and European countries. The first vowel in the Brahmi has a spiritual significance. It is eternal and undecaying. It is the first sound which reverberates through the universe in all times and ages. It represents the absolute reality. Rishabha taught the people how to read, write and count numerals. He invented the system of making eathern pots for the purpose of cooking food. He instructed the people to build houses with wood and clay. Canals, wells and tanks were dug for providing water. Roads were laid out for regular traffic from one corner to another corner of the country. He taught the people civics and hygiene. He introduced village councils for the administration of rural areas and appointed headmen in each and every village to administer the law and promoted order among the people. He instilled in the hearts of the people the principles of social and religious duties and laws and exhorted them to observe those laws in their every
day life. He preached the ethics of noviolence, compassion and mercy, charity and service for the amelioration of human and sub human sufferings. He taught the early man the duties of a house holder and his moral and religious responsibilities in life. Rishabha initiated the movement of religious preaching and educated the people in all subjects of secular and spiritual problems. It was the first and foermost movement for the cultura and regious regeneration of the people in the history of India.
Rishabha advised the people to live in groups in villages and towns and instructed them the principles of polity and social life based on Ahimsa or Brotherhood. Thus Rishabha established and systametised social order and civilized ways of life among the people and they became contented, happy and prosperous. They began to lead a peaceful life promoting universal welfare.
After ruling Ayodhya for many years as king and President guiding the people on the right way of life, and establishing Dharma, the enduring and glorious culture and civilization for the benefit of mankind. Rishabha resoled to renounce the home life to a homeless life asceticism in search of the ultimate reality. Self-illumination and self-realisation, the supreme goal of NIRVANA from all mundane sufferings. Having been born with the special mission of guiding the people on the right path of life to redeem them from all sufferings, Rishabha realised that his labors for the regeneration of the people to a higher standard of social and religious way of life were fulfilled and that the time has arrived for his renunciation of the home life, his detachment from all attachments and desires, the destruction of all his mental propendities, both good and bad, all his KARMAS, the atmos velling and abstracting the final liberation of his soul and that he should practise extreme penance and austerities in
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