Ṛshabha Muni
Ṛshabha, simply known as Rishabha, Sanskrit: ऋषभ, Telugu: ఋషభుడు, Hindi: ऋषभ.
Ṛshabha has other meanings too: see all meanings of Ṛshabha.
Ṛshabha is a brahmarshi who lives at the holy āśrama of Nara-Nārāyaṇa. This is the hermitage where Bhagavān Nārāyaṇa himself performs tapas (austerity) without end. Ṛshabha is the main teacher of the Ṛshabha Gītā in the Mahābhārata, Śānti Parva, Chapters 125–128.
In the Gītā he tells a set of accounts, one inside another, about āśā (hope and expectation). He speaks of its most wretched form: hope placed in a person who is ungrateful, cruel or beyond mending. Ṛshabha also appears as the thin muni Kṛśa, and his true identity is shown only at the end of the account.
Who he is and where he lives
Ṛshabha is linked with the Nara-Nārāyaṇa āśrama. This is one of the holiest places in the Mahābhārata. It is identified with Badarikāśrama in the Himālaya, where Bhagavān Nārāyaṇa does tapas without end. Ṛshabha lives there, close to the tapas of Bhagavān Nārāyaṇa.
In the Ṛshabha Gītā he first appears in his own form as a radiant muni. Then, inside the account he tells, he appears as the thin muni Kṛśa. The name Kṛśa means “the emaciated one”. At the end he is shown to be the same person. The thin muni is thin from the wasting that āśā in unworthy persons causes.
The teaching of the Ṛshabha Gītā
Ṛshabha’s teaching answers Yudhishṭhira’s grief. Yudhishṭhira had placed hope in Duryodhana. Again and again he had believed that Duryodhana might act with generosity, goodwill or simple decency, and each time he was let down. Bhīshma tells the Ṛshabha Gītā as the right answer to this grief.
The accounts nested inside the teaching are these:
- Sumitrā, king of the Haihayas, has lost his kingdom. He lives in the forest, kept alive only by āśā, the hope of winning it back.
- Ṛshabha comes to him as a thin muni, Kṛśa. He says that he too is wasted by āśā, by hope in persons who proved unworthy.
- Inside this account, King Vīradyumna has wandered in search of his lost son Bhūridyumna. He is kept going by the hope that Bhūridyumna may be found. The muni explains the kinds of āśā, from the worst to the least bad.
The kinds of āśā he teaches:
| Kind of āśā | Condition |
|---|---|
| Most wretched | Hope placed in a cruel, ungrateful person of low nature who cannot be mended |
| Very emaciated | Hope placed in one who knows his duties but ignores them |
| Emaciated | Hope placed in a noble person who has himself fallen into misfortune |
| Least bad | Hope placed in a capable and willing person who is only delayed |
The teaching ends with this: there is no āśā worse than āśā in a person who is nīca (low) by nature and cannot be mended. Such hope does not only fail. It wastes the one who hopes. With every round of expectation and betrayal it drains his strength, his clarity and his peace.
Meaning for Yudhishṭhira
Bhīshma tells the Ṛshabha Gītā to Yudhishṭhira, who had hoped again and again in Duryodhana. He had hoped that Duryodhana would give back the kingdom, would agree to talk, and would give way. Bhīshma gives him this teaching so that he can see that his grief comes from placing āśā in a person of low nature who cannot be mended. The grief is right and natural.
Sources
- Mahābhārata, Śānti Parva, Rājadharmānuśāsana Parva, Chapters 125–128 (the Ṛshabha Gītā)