Risabha Deva

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

Page 46

32
RISABHA DEVA
Humanity in that far distant age all attained to giant stature, and the Lord looked like an immovable Mountain as He stood absorbed in holy meditation.
The four thousand followers of the Lord whose hearts were not illumined with knowledge or faith, soon began to feel uneasy. They tried to restrain themselves as long as they could ; but were unable to stand there doing nothing, and were overpowered by hunger and thirst. They left the place, one after another, and became dispersed in the forest, their fear of the men's ridicule and Bharata's displeasure preventing them from appearing again in the world. Many of them put on aprons and licn-strips made of bark and leaves, and lived in the forest, each followiug his own fancy for becoming like the WORLD TEACHER.
It would be wrong to suppose that there was no real differenc: between the tapascharana of the WORLD TEACHER and of those who had merely taken to it in imitation of Flim. The greatest difference, between them lay in regard to the sense of freedom which stirred the. WORLD TEACHER, and filled Him with indescribable inward joy. The others had not given up the world of their own accord, and did not experience the Joy of Freedom, but sadness, and sorrow at their destitution! The result was that while the WORLD TEACHER enjoyed inner happiness all the time, His imitators were merely regretting the 'foolish' step they had taken!
In this manner did the WORLD TEACHER continue with His meditation for the space of six