Slokam 3

The Paramathma is born as Rishaba to Nabhi and his wife Merudevi.

The king, queen and the assembled rishis were greatly delighted and all departed awaiting the happy event. In due time the queen gave birth to a beautiful son with all the divine marks of conch, the chakra -wheel - and mace engraved in his palms and feet. The child Rishabha, grew up very rapidlyinto a tall, powerful and handsome person, the very picture of SriHari.

In Hinduism, Rishabha is one of the twenty four avatars of Vishnu in the Bhagavata Purana.^[1][2][3] Some scholars state that this avatar is same as the first Tirthankara of Jainism.^[3][4] Rishabha is also found in Vedic literature, where it means the "bull" and is an epithet for Rudra (Shiva).^[5]

The Vedas mention the name Rishabha.^[8] However, the context in the Rigveda, Atharvaveda and the Upanishads suggests that it means the bull, sometimes "any male animal" or "most excellent of any kind", or "a kind of medicinal plant".^[9][8]

According to Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, a professor of comparative religions and philosophy at Oxford who later became the second President of India, there is evidence to show that Rishabha was being worshipped by the first century BCE. The Yajurveda, states Radhakrishnan, mentions the name of three Tirthankaras – Rishabha, Ajitanatha and Arishtanemi, and that "the Bhāgavata Purāṇa endorses the view that Rishabha was the founder of Jainism".^[1

The Paramathma brings sterling qualities to the throne. King Rishabha set the standards of rulership.  Not much detail is provided as to his attainments as a king and administrator. The reign appears to have been peaceful and development oriented. 

The rule was characterized by a display of virtues.

The importance of the visibility of virtues of a ruler cannot be overemphasized. 

The ruler is the role model for the country and its people,  who are always looking to the leader to show the path.  Any lapses on the rulers part will immediately result in lowering morality in society.  We see a significant lowering of standards in modern societies due to elected representatives attempts to enrich themselves at the cost of the public. Degradation of values is no longer the exception. It  has become the norm in modern societies.  King Rishabha’s establishment of good values,  has be repeated once in awhile,  and probably quite frequently,  to ward off the influence of Kali.

Every birth of the Paranmathma has a specific purpose.  The intent is always accomplished. However,  when maintenance of the order is handed to the people, deterioration sets in again,  due to the influence of Kali. 

Kali is the asura,  that keeps attacking those who attempt leading dharmic lives.  Invariably,  the forces of Kali, prevail,  and once again the Paramathma has to intervene to destroy Kali’s forces of misdirection.

Within our inner selves also,  order needs to be established periodically.  As long as we continue to weave in spirituality into our daily schedule of life,  the forces of Kali will not impact us.  This a constant daily battle that needs to be balanced in favor of the Paramathma. The battle between dharmic and adharmic forces within us has to be consciously managed. It cannot be allowed to slip up.  So we have to maintain an inner throne on which nonother than the swaroopam of the Paramathma is allowed to take charge. 

This establishment of the Paramathma on the throne of the inner self is also an important first step in the practice of selflessness. It promotes a consistent approach to life with no conflict. 

The king should be a living example of the success and progress that can be attained by following the path of dharma. In the modern corruption ridden administrations,  the fabric of values has been completely shred. The result is that, dharma has been replaced by a functional system of justice that people  try to circumvent. We tend to take shortcuts to avoid the effort and costs  associated with being dharmic. Evasion of the law and immorality are seen to pay easy rewards.  It is hard to understand the consequences of the negative impact later on in life.

It is not often realized that an adharmic life closes the door to attainment of moksham. There are instances in the Bhagavatham of people who have led adharmic lives, but have been granted moksham because of having reformed towards the very end o their life.  Such occurrences are rare,  and it is more likely that those who fall victim to the temptations of life,  will succumb,  and the only recourse would be to take on the horrendous life of animals on this planet and begin the climb up the evolutionary ladder all over again.

May we always reserve the inner throne for the Paramathma and allow the reign of all His avatars to completely govern our lives.