Risabha Deva

Author(s): Champat Rai Jain
Publisher: Jain Mitra Mandal

Page 36

22
RISABHA DEVA
milk, * and a delightful fragrance emanated from his person. All the marks of Sainthood and Greatness were present in His person. As for His disposition, from His very childhood He had the fewest desires, and was like a saintly recluse at heart. If it were not the wish of His royal father, He would probably have refused to enter into matrimony. Nābhi Raja had asked Him, saying, “O Lord, Thou really art the Father of the Three Worlds, for Thou art the Preceptor of all living beings; I am Thy father merely like an accompanying cause! Be pleased to recognize the need for the establishnient of the inarriage sacrament, so that humanity may not mis direct themselves in that regard, and come to grief, through sheer inability to follow the example of great Celibates!” Thus addressed, Risabh Deva gave His consent with silence, accompanied by a very sunny smile, and the monosyllabic 'Om.'
Two accomplished and beautiful ladies the sisters (but according to another version, the daughters) of the brothers Kachha and Mahakachha were soon found for young Risabha Deva, and He was married to them under auspicious constellations .
The Hindu acknowledgment of the fact is to be found in the challenge of their god Siva, who set up the fact that his own veins contained no fluid blood, but only ashes against the white blood of certain Saints. The justification for Siva's boast is furnished by tapascharana (varragya= austerities) which he allegorically represents, inasmuch as it signifies the burning up of all kinds of desires, that is to say in other words, the reducing of everything to ashes !