Jaigīshavya
Jaigīshavya
Devala has other meanings too: see all meanings of Devala.
Jaigīshavya is a great yogin and ṛshi (seer) who appears twice in the Mahābhārata. In the Śalya Parva (Chapter 50) his yoga powers are found in every world, and Asita Devala is astonished. Devala bows to him and Jaigīshavya teaches him mokshadharma (the path of liberation). In the Mokshadharma Parva (Chapter 229) Jaigīshavya stays calm in both praise and blame. Asita Devala asks him about this, and he gives a full teaching on the sthita-prajña, a person of steady wisdom. In the Anuśāsana Parva (Chapter 18) he tells Yudhishṭhira how he gained the siddhis by the ārādhanā of Bhagavān Śiva at Kāśī. The devas said that no being in any world could match Jaigīshavya in prabhāva (power), tejas (brilliance), tapas (austerity) or yoga.
The Agni Purāṇa names him in the Yama-gītā, where Yama tells Naciketas what the great teachers have taught as the highest śreyas (the highest good). Jaigīshavya’s teaching is that the karma enjoined by the Ṛg, Yajus and Sāma Vedas, done as duty and without attachment, brings śreyas.
Jaigīshavya in the Śalya Parva
In the Śalya Parva, Jaigīshavya is a parivrājaka (a wandering renunciant). He comes to the āśrama of Asita Devala on the banks of the Sarasvatī and lives there in complete silence.
The Śalya Parva describes Jaigīshavya in these ways:
- He is a bhikshu (a mendicant who lives on alms).
- He is nityayuktavān, always established in yoga.
- He is a siddhapurusha, a perfected being.
- He is a parivrājaka (a wanderer) who had taken up a stay in Devala’s āśrama.
During his stay he was very still. He took whatever food was given as alms, moved very little and kept completely silent. Devala honoured him for a long time and did not receive one word in reply.
For years Devala watches and tests this unusual guest. Devala flies to many realms: the ocean, devaloka, pitṛloka, Āditya-loka and Brahmaloka. In each realm he finds Jaigīshavya already there, although Jaigīshavya never seems to move.
When Devala went to the ocean, Jaigīshavya was already there and had finished his bath. When Devala came back to the āśrama, Jaigīshavya was sitting there as before. The same happened in every world Devala visited:
- the ocean (samudra)
- devaloka, the realm of the devas
- pitṛloka, the realm of the ancestors
- the worlds of the great performers of yajña (fire rituals): the ekānta-yājins, the agnihotrikas, those who kept the amāvasyā and pūrṇimā vows, the paśu-yājins, those who kept the cāturmāsya vows, and those who performed the Agnishṭoma, Vājapeya, Rājasūya, Pauṇḍarīka, Aśvamedha, Sarvamedha and Sautrāmaṇī
- Mitra-Varuṇa-loka and Āditya-loka
- Rudra-loka, Vasu-loka and Bṛhaspati-loka
- Goloka
- the worlds of the pativratās (devoted wives)
At last Devala came to the eternal Brahmaloka. There the siddhas (perfected beings) told him that Jaigīshavya had arrived and now lived there for good. Devala could not enter Brahmaloka by his own powers.
In every realm Jaigīshavya was truly there. He was not a reflection or a copy. He was Jaigīshavya himself, as if he had always been in that place.
At last Devala bows to him. He accepts that Jaigīshavya’s realization is higher than his own, and he asks to be taught mokshadharma. Jaigīshavya then teaches him the highest yoga and the way to moksha. He taught Devala:
- yoga-vidhi, the method of yoga
- the difference between kārya (what must be done) and akārya (what must not be done)
- mokshadharma (the path and nature of liberation)
Devala had long lived as a gṛhastha (householder), though with a discipline close to that of a renunciant. Now he took up sannyāsa (renunciation) fully. Devala finally reaches paramapada (the highest state).
After Devala reached that state, Nārada told the gathered devas, “There is no tapas in Jaigīshavya. He only astonished Devala.”
The devas answered firmly, “No being in any of the worlds can equal Jaigīshavya. No one equals him in prabhāva (power), in tejas (brilliance), in tapas or in yoga.” Both Jaigīshavya and Devala are counted among the highest siddhas.
Jaigīshavya in the Mokshadharma Parva
In Chapter 229, Asita Devala comes to Jaigīshavya with a question: “You are not glad when you are honoured, and you are not angry when you are reviled. What is the nature of this prajñā (wisdom)? How did it arise? What is its final state?”
Jaigīshavya answers with a full teaching.
The seven marks of the mahātmā
A mahātmā (great soul) has these marks:
- He keeps his inner resolves, his good works and his sādhanā (spiritual practice) hidden from the world. He does not announce what he has reached.
- He does not revile those who revile him. Even to the one who acts against him, he does good.
- He does not wish to strike back at those who have struck him.
- He does not grieve for what is lost. He does not grasp for what he cannot have. He acts only with what kāla (time) has placed in his hands in the present moment.
- When honour comes to him without his seeking it, he receives it with firm nishṭhā (steadiness) and lives on as before. He neither grasps it nor runs from it.
- He is free from jealousy. He does not harm others even in thought. When he sees the success of others, he does not burn with envy.
- He is praśānta (fully calm) in every condition. The good of all beings (sarvabhūta-hita) is his only joy.
Insult as nectar, honour as poison
The heart of this teaching is one saying:
“One who knows the tattva (truth) should receive insult as amṛta (nectar), with satisfaction. One who has viveka (discernment) should receive honour as visha (poison), with careful unease.”
A person who has been insulted and stays calm is freed from all the doshas (faults) he has gathered. The one who gives the insult cannot sleep. In this world and the next, the one who receives insult and does not answer it sleeps in peace and without fear.
The path to Brahman
The person who has cut the hṛdaya-granthi (the knot of the heart, which is false identification) moves freely toward brahma-tattva (the truth of Brahman). The path of such a person cannot be reached by devas, gandharvas, piśācas or rākshasas.
At Kāśī: the Anuśāsana Parva
In the Anuśāsana Parva, Chapter 18, in the section that praises the thousand names of Bhagavān Śiva (the Śiva-sahasranāma-mahimā), Jaigīshavya speaks before Yudhishṭhira. He says that long ago, at Kāśīpura, he put forth very great effort in the ārādhanā (worship) of Bhagavān Śiva. Through this he gained the aṇimādi-aiśvaryas, the siddhis (powers) that begin with aṇimā (the power to become very small).
Jaigīshavya in the Agni Purāṇa
Agni Deva tells Vasishṭha Maharshi the Yama-gītā, which Yama spoke to Naciketas, and which gives bhukti (enjoyment) and mukti to those seeking moksha who read it or hear it. Yama begins: though man himself is unstable and impermanent, in his great delusion he wishes his seat, bed, vehicle, clothes and house to last for ever. Then he gives the highest śreyas as the great teachers taught it:
- Kapila: non-attachment to bhogas (enjoyments), and always seeing the ātmā.
- Pañcaśikha: seeing equally everywhere, freedom from the sense of “mine”, and non-attachment.
- Gaṅgāvishṇu: understanding the states of life, from dwelling in the womb through birth, childhood and the other ages.
- Janaka: knowing the beginning and end of the sorrows, the ādhyātmika and the others, and doing what counters them.
- Brahmā: that which stills the seeing of difference in the tattva that has no difference.
- Jaigīshavya: the karma enjoined by the Ṛg, Yajus and Sāma, done with the sense of duty and without attachment, brings śreyas.
- Devala: giving up all undertakings is the means to sukha (happiness).
- Sanaka: when kāma (desire) is given up, vijñāna, sukha and the supreme state are gained; those who have kāma do not gain vijñāna.
Yama goes on to teach that naishkarmya, freedom from karma, is the highest śreyas and is itself the form of Hari, and he closes with the teaching of the chariot, the eight limbs of yoga and the oneness of the freed jīva with Brahman.
Source: Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 382
Jaigīshavya in the Bhāgavata Purāṇa
In the line of Bṛhadishu, which Śrī Śuka Maharshi tells Parīkshit, Nīpa begot Brahmadatta in Kṛtvī, the daughter of Śuka. Brahmadatta was a yogī; his wife was Sarasvatī and his son Vishvaksena. By the upadeśa (teaching) of Jaigīshavya Maharshi, Brahmadatta composed a yoga śāstra.
Source: Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 9, Chapter 21
Sources
- Mahābhārata, Śalya Parva, Chapter 50
- Mahābhārata, Śānti Parva, Mokshadharma Parva, Chapter 229
- Mahābhārata, Anuśāsana Parva, Chapter 18
- Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 382
- Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 9, Chapter 21