BY: SUN STAFF
Mar 30, CANADA (SUN) —
Bhagavat Sandarbha
by Srila Jiva Goswami
SECTION FIFTY-TWO
Lord Rishabhadeva's Body is Transcendental.
In the same manner, the body of Sri Rishabhadeva who appeared as avesavatara is to be understood as transcendental. As Sri Rishabhadeva told His sons (5.5.19): "My human-like body is inconceivable reality. Religion is situated in my heart and irreligion to my back and therefore saintly people call me Rishabha, or the best person."
Rishabhadeva is saying, "This human-like body of mine is certainly the Absolute Reality which is reasoning. Wherever there is religion characterized by pure devotional service--, that's where my heart, my mind is. And therefore that which is contrary to this dharma, the irreligion, I keep to my back." The meaning is that I am ill disposed towards irreligion."
Therefore the concluding pastime of Lord Rishabhadeva, the speaker of the verse is actually his disappearance on the pretext. But it is described that way according to the experience of the materialistic people, to show the behaviour of an atmarama, or self-satisfied person. It is stated (SB.5.6.6): "He adopted this behaviour just to teach the yogis how to give up the body." Therefore, in the statement "desiring to give up His body--sva-kalevaram jihasu--the word kalevara means the material world. Because in Upasana-sastra the word kalevara is known in this sense.
In text (S.B.5.6.8) "The blazing forest fire generated by the mutual rubbing of bamboos shaken by the rapid wind engulfed and burned the forest along with Him (saha tena)." In the real meaning in "with him" (tena saha), the third case is used to mean the assistant of the agent. By the rule of primary-secondary, the agent is to be considered first. Therefore the meaning is that the forest fire burnt the gross bodies of the trees and other living beings existing in the forest, but Sri Rishabhadeva burnt their subtle bodies. In this way one should notice his ability to liberate all of them.
Lord Rama did (S.B. 9.11.22): "The residents of Ayodhya who saw, sat with, followed or touched Him (Lord Rama), went to that abode which is attained by the Yogis."
By depicting His quality common with fire, like fire His disappearance is also implied. Thus the third chapter is entitled "The Appearance of Sri Rishabhadeva" and not "The Birth of Sri Rishabhadeva."
COMMENTARY
After explaining that Lord Krishna's transcendental body is non-different from Him, Srila Jiva Gosvami explains that the body of Lord Rishabhadeva, an avesavatara, is also transcendental even though He is not a full incarnation. Srila Rupa Gosvami defines an avesavatara in the following verse (Laghu-bhagavatamritam 1.17):
"When Lord Krishna enters a living entity through a portion of His such as or energy knowledge, such a great soul is called an avesa."
There are two categories of avesavataras--bhagavad-avesavatara and bhagavat-shaktyavesavatara. The first type are living entities who have the ego of the Lord and the second type are those who have the ego of a devotee. Lord Rishabhadeva is an example of bhagavad-aveshavatera as He says (S.B. 5.5.6):
"Therefore, unless one has love for Me, Lord Vasudeva, he is certainly not delivered from the bondage of this material body."
Examples of bhagavat-saktyavesavataras are Sri Narada Muni and the four Kumaras. All avesha incarnations are living entities, but they are invested with a special power of the Lord.
Lord Rishabhadeva appeared as the son of King Nabhi and Merudevi. Of His one hundred sons, Bharata Maharaja was the eldest and owing to his glories, India was named after him. Nine of his younger brothers were renounced paramahamsas know as the nava-yogendras.
Once in the assembly of great sages, Lord Rishabha instructed His one hundred sons in transcendental knowledge. The verse under discussion is one of His teachings. The preceding verse emphasizes the importance of self-realization, which is rooted in service to the Lord and His devotees. In the current verse He explains that His sons do not have to go far to search out the Lord as their father is the Lord Himself. In the next verse, He instructs His sons to serve their elder brother, Bharata Maharaja who was a great devotee. In this way He explained that service to His devotees is service to Him.
Lord Rishabha explains that His body in non-different from the Absolute Truth and thus inconceivable to mundane logic. One can conceive of a form made of earth, but not one made of pure consciousness. Indeed it is difficult to conceive of a form made of any element besides earth, water, and fire. The subtle elements also have from, but it is not possible to perceive them with the gross eyes. Yogis however, can even perceive atoms. Sri visvanatha Pancanana states in Bhasha pariccheda (65) yuktasya tavadyogaja-dharma-sahayena manasa akasa paramanvadinikhila-padartha-gocaram jnanam sarvadaiva bhavitum arhati--A Yukta Yogi by the power of Yoga through his mind is able to see everything such as the sky atoms at all time."
Certainly the Lord sees everything because He has created everything including the atoms.
The inconceivable nature of the Lord's form indicates that it is not a product of karma. His form results from His own free will. Such is not the case with ordinary living entities and thus they cannot comprehend that form can be the Absolute Reality.
When the Lord says that His form is Absolute, or when He calls Himself Vasudeva, the Supreme goal of life, He does not do so out of pride. His purpose is to instruct His sons and other human beings through them. It is out of compassion that He reveals these secrets to the conditioned living beings.
The Lord says that religion resides in His heart and that irreligion resides far away, on His back, . This means He can be understood through religion, which means bhakti. All other processes are material. Only bhakti is transcendental, being comprised of the internal potency of the Lord. For the irreligious the Lord is very far away and cannot be approached even by their mind. Indeed non-devotees can never approach Him even by the process of jnana and yoga. Lord Brahma confirms this (Brahma Samhita 5.4):
"I worship Govinda, the primeval Lord, only the tip of the toe of whose lotus feet is approached by the yogis who aspire after the transcendental and betake themselves to pranayama by drilling the respiration; or by the jnanis who try to find out the non-differentiated Brahman by the process of elimination of the mundane, extending over thousands of millions of years."
Rishabha means best. When the words rishabha, vyaghra, sardula, simha, pungava, and so on, are added, they make the preceding word superlative. Thus purusha-vyaghra means the best of all persons. Since the Lord is the best of everything, He is simply called Rishabha. This is the opinion of aryans, or learned people. Or the word arya in this verse refers to His father who named Him and plural is used out of respect for Him. Sri Suka said (S.B. 5.4.2):
"When the son of Maharaja Nabhi became visible, He evinced all good qualities described by the great poets--namely, a well build body with all the symptoms of Godhead, prowess, strengths, beauty, name, fame, influence, and enthusiasm. When the father, Maharaja Nabhi, saw all these qualities, he thought his son to be the best of human beings or the supreme being. Therefore he gave Him the name Rishabha."
An objection may be raised regarding the statement that Lord Rishabhadeva's body is transcendental. In the fifth canto, chapter five, Sukadeva Gosvami describes how Rishabha took to renounced life after instructing His sons and installing Bharata Maharaja on the throne. Abandoning all codes of social conduct He followed the path of an avadhuta, neglecting to wear clothes or maintain His body. This practice requires full absorption in spiritual consciousness to the degree that one no longer pays attention to his body. Such consciousness cannot be done artificially. According to the Maha-nirvana tantra, there are four types of avadhutas. The best of them is called hamsa, whose activities are described below:
"A hamsa should not possess anything and never associate with women. He should wander surviving on whatever he gets by the will of fate and should remain free from all rules and regulations."
Lord Rishabhadeva calls himself hamsa (S.B.5.5.10) and he accepted such a lifestyle (S.B. 5.5.29):
"After accepting the feature of avadhuta, Lord Rishabhadeva passed through human society like a blind, deaf and dumb man, an idle stone, a ghost, or a madman. Although people called Him such names, He remained silent and did not speak to anyone."
In the end He was burnt in a forest fire (S.B. 5.6.8):
"While He was wandering about, a wild forest fire began. This fire was caused by the friction of bamboos, which were being blown by the wind. In that fire, the entire forest near Kutakacala and the body of Lord Rishabhadeva were burnt to ashes."
In Bhagavad-gita Krishna says that even the atomic soul cannot be burnt. How is it that Rishabha's transcendental body was burned? Srila Jiva Gosvami says that careful analysis of this text reveals that Rishabhadeva's body was not burnt in the forest fire. He says that the phrase saha tena dadaha does not mean that the fire burnt the trees along with Rishabhadeva, although at a cursory look it appears to mean that. It means that Rishabha, along with the fire, burned the trees. While the fire burned the gross bodies of the trees and animals, Lord Rishabhadeva burned their subtle bodies. The pronoun tena is in the third case and literally means "along with him." It has been used because of the indeclinable saha, as ordained by the Panini Sutra (2.3.19) saha-yukte'pradhane. For example, in the sentence putrena saha agatah pita, "The father has come with his son". "Father" is the chief agent of the verb and "son" is the secondary agent. In this particular case the son is not assisting the father in coming, but merely accompanying him. Here saha (with), means the son is only accompanying the agent of the verb. In the present example the fire is burning the trees and Lord Rishabha is also engaged in that activity thus assisting the primary agent in achieving the action. Or it could mean that he is not assisting fire but accompanying him by burning the subtle bodies while the fire is burning the gross bodies. In this instance saha does not mean that He was burnt with the forest, rather it means that He along with the fire engaged in the activity of burning the forest.
Thus while the forest fire burnt the gross bodies the Lord burnt their subtle bodies. That means he liberated them. If this Text (5.6.8) is translated to mean that His body was burnt by fire, it will contradict the pervious Text, which states that His body is not material.
A further objection may be raised. In verse (S.B. 5.6.6) it is stated that He desired to give up His body, sva-kalevara-jihasuh. Kalevara means body. Because He desires to give up the body it is improper to say that He did not get burnt in the forest fire. Srila Jiva Gosvami replies that kalevara in this text means the material world and thus the phrase means "he desired to leave the material world." And even if the meaning of the word kalevara is taken as body, still it does not mean that He gave up His body. Because in case of the Lord the words "giving up body" means leaving the earth. This is confirmed by the following verse from Kurma Purana cited by Srila Madhvacarya in his Bhagavata-tatparya (5.6.6):
"When the phrase "giving up the body" (kalevara ) is applied to Lord Vishnu, it simply means that He disappears from the earth and nothing more. But in case of others, it means dying, or giving up the body made of five elements."
Therefore it is proper to say that He disappeared from the material world. Just as fire burned the trees and then disappeared, the Lord burned the subtle bodies of the inhabitants of the forest and then He disappeared. Fire exist in the wood everywhere but appears by friction, similarly Lord is present everywhere but appears by devotion. Hence the comparison of the Lord with fire is appropriate. This explanation agrees with an earlier statement Sri Suka, suklaya tanvavatara, "The Lord appeared in Visuddha sattva form."(S.B. 5.3.20). Sukadeva Gosvami does not say that He took birth (janma). Thus just as Lord Rishabhadeva appeared, He disappeared in the same way. He did this earlier also when Lord Rishabha's father, Nabhi performed a sacrifice toa ttain a son. Lord appeared in the sacrificial arena aviscakara (S.B.5.3.2) and disappeared after blessing King Nabhi, antardadhe bhagavan (5.3.19).
In the following Text the author cites Sri Bhisma, one of the 12 Vedic authorities on religion to show how Lord Krishna's body is transcendental.
Go to Section Fifty-three
Return to Section Fifty-one
