Raidāsa
Raidāsa · raidāsa, “Raidāsa, son of Mānadāsa”
Raidāsa, son of Mānadāsa, was born in the house of a cobbler. The Pratisarga Parva of the Bhavishya Purāṇa tells that he was the aṃśa of Piṅgalāpati, one of the two Aśvinīkumāras, the physicians of the devas, born on earth by his aṃśa. He went to Kāśīpurī, defeated Kabīra, devoted to Śrī Rāma, in debate, and came to Śaṅkarācārya. Defeated by him, Raidāsa came to Rāmānanda and accepted discipleship. He entered samādhi at Kaliñjara. Caraṇadāsa is named as a follower of his path.
Source: Bhavishya Purāṇa, Pratisarga Parva, Khaṇḍa 4, Chapters 18, 21–23
His origin in the Aśvinīkumāras
Sūta tells a muni that Bṛhaspati, having told Mahendra and the devas at Prayāga the māhātmya of the twelve Ādityas, the Rudras and the eight Vasus, looked toward the Aśvinīkumāras and told their gāthā.
Bhagavān Vivasvān had from Saṃjñā three children of divine splendour: Vaivasvata Manu, Yama and Yamunā. Saṃjñā, knowing her husband to be the very form of tejas, produced her own shadow, Chāyā, and went away to perform tapas. Sāvarṇi Manu, Śani and Tapatī were born of Chāyā. Bhagavān Sūrya saw Chāyā’s unequal conduct toward the children, understood her to be a woman of the nature of māyā, and reduced her to ash.
Sāvarṇi and Śani, knowing Vivasvān to be angry, grew angry with Bhagavān Sūrya and began to fight him, and they began to be burned to ash by him. They came to the Himālaya and performed supreme tapas, and after three years Mahākālī, who loves her bhaktas, granted them a vara. With the vara they came again to fight, and Sūrya, powerful through tapas, afraid of them, left that place.
His beloved Saṃjñā had taken the form of a mare and was engaged in tapas in the lovely Kurukhaṇḍa, in order to attain him. Bhagavān Sūrya, searching for her, reached there and took the form of a horse. For five years he remained in horse form with her, and two sons of valour and divine form were born from the mare: the Aśvinīkumāras. Seeing their father’s sorrow, they stationed themselves in the Sūrya-maṇḍala, defeated Sāvarṇi and Śani, bound them and brought them to their father, who struck them with an iron rod, by which they became lame.
Source: Bhavishya Purāṇa, Pratisarga Parva, Khaṇḍa 4, Chapter 18
Sūrya’s words on Iḍāpati and Piṅgalāpati
Bhagavān Sūrya, pleased, said to the Aśvinīkumāras that as Jīva and Īśa, and Nara and Nārāyaṇa, though two names, are one and friends of each other, so they would both be known by the one name Nāsatya. Iḍā Devī, the śakti of Soma, would be their elder wife, and Piṅgalā, the śakti of Sūrya, their younger wife. Of the two, one would be Iḍāpati and the other Piṅgalāpati.
He gave this teaching:
- If the cruel glance of Śanaiścara falls on the twelfth place from a person’s rāśi, ārādhana of Iḍāpati brings relief.
- Sāvarṇi standing in the second place from the rāśi causes delusion, and for this ārādhana of Piṅgalāpati gives śānti.
- Devī Tapantī standing in the janma-rāśi causes burning, and then Iḍā and Piṅgalā give śānti.
Hearing these words the Aśvinīkumāras became the physicians of the devas. Sāvarṇi and Śani became Rāhu and Ketu by their other aṃśas, and even now they trouble Sūrya in the form of the grahaṇa. For the removal and śānti of all these the Aśvinīkumāras appeared, and by their ārādhana these are pacified.
Source: Bhavishya Purāṇa, Pratisarga Parva, Khaṇḍa 4, Chapter 18
His birth and his debates at Kāśī
Sūta tells Śaunaka that the Aśvinīkumāras, hearing this account from Bṛhaspati, were pleased and were born by their aṃśas on the earth in the śūdra-yoni. Piṅgalāpati was born in the house of a cobbler, and he became famous as Raidāsa, son of Mānadāsa.
He went to Kāśīpurī and defeated Kabīra, devoted to Śrī Rāma, in debate. He came to Śaṅkarācārya and was defeated by him. Then Raidāsa came to Rāmānanda and accepted discipleship.
Source: Bhavishya Purāṇa, Pratisarga Parva, Khaṇḍa 4, Chapter 18
His samādhi and his path
The Pratisarga Parva tells that when the mleccha-yantras had been made fruitless, Raidāsa entered samādhi at Kaliñjara. Nityānanda entered samādhi in Śāntipura, Hari at Nadīhāpattana, Kabīra in Māgadha and Sadhana in Naimishāraṇya.
Vardhana, one of the disciples of Mukunda in his former birth, became renowned as Caraṇadāsa. He composed the work called Jñānamālā and became a follower of the path of Raidāsa.
Source: Bhavishya Purāṇa, Pratisarga Parva, Khaṇḍa 4, Chapters 21–23
Sources
- Bhavishya Purāṇa, Pratisarga Parva, Khaṇḍa 4, Chapters 18, 21–23