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66
Rishibiashit : A Study
inflicted with anger suffers agony and disturbance recurrently. Simple darkness can be removed by light but the darkness of anger is difficult to remove. Also, anger burns self as well as others. Because of anger all the three good attributes of Dharma (religion), Artha (wealth), and Karma (vitality) are destroyed. As such, anger should be curbed
Although the eighth Vasudev in Jain tradition is also named Narayan, who has also been refered to as Laxman; but he is some one else, not Narayan (Tarayan) of Rishibhashit. He may be recognised as Narayan Rishi of the Vedic tradition. In Vedic or Hindu tradition Narayan is the name of the God himself; but Narayan Rishi, who is believed to be a reincarnation of God, is also mentioned there. Generally he is known as one of the pair of Rishis named Nara-Narayan;271 They are believed to have done penance for thousands of years at Badrikashram.272 There is a mention of their dialogue with Narad in Shantiparva 273. The tenth section of Taittiriya Aranyak is popularly known as Narayanopnishad 274
There is no information about Narayan Rishi in Buddhist tradition. Details available from other sources help coming to the conclusion that Narayan (Tarayan) mentioned in Sutrakritang and Rishibhashit is the Narayan Rishi of Hindu tradition.
37. SRIGIRI
The thirty seventh chapter of Rishibhashit is about the Brahman Parivrajak named Srigiri. Like Tetaliputra (10), Bahuk (14), Utkatvadi (20), Parshwa (31), chapters this is also fully in prose. Besides Rishibhashit, mention of Srigiri is not available anywhere in Vedic, Buddhist, or Jain literature. As such no information about the personality of Srigiri is available from any source.
In the first part of this chapter275, three principles about creation have been stated. It says : (1) First of all there only was water, an egg appeared in it, then the universe was born and it became full of life. This universe was not created by Varun (god of water); thus Srigiri negates the concept of the universe being created out of an egg. This is well known that this concept about creation was present in the Upanishadic thoughts. In Sutrakritang276 also this concept has been mentioned and negated. (2) The second concept about creation is of Maya (illusion); the universe is said to be born out of illusion. But Srigiri opposes this hypothesis and says that this world is not an illusion. Thus negating both these theories he presents his third theory of eternalism as : (3) It is not that this world did not exist some time in the past, does not exist at the present moment,
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