Rishaba Deva was an amsa avatara of Vishnu, who came to the earth to teach moksha dharma, said P.T. Seshadri in a discourse. Nine of his sons were yogiswaras. They could go to whichever world they pleased, whenever they wanted to. That meant they could travel without any hurdle to Deva loka, siddha loka, saadhya loka, gandharva loka, yaksha loka, manushya loka, kinnara loka and Naga loka, and to the caves where sages were doing penance.
There was a king called Nimi, who performed a yaga. When the nava yogiswaras came near the yaga sala, everyone welcomed them. Nimi said to them, “It is a great boon to be born a human being. But life is like a flash of lightning. It is difficult to think of God in this world. Rarely does one meet jnanis like you. Tell us about moksha.”
The nava yogiswaras explained different aspects of Bhagavata dharma to Nimi. The first yogiswara, by name Kavi spoke first. He talked about the fears we have in this world. He said, “Those who think of the Lord’s feet, will not know fear. Desiring worldly possessions makes you take the wrong path, and this makes you fearful. We should have the jnana that we should reach Him and that the way to do so is through Him. This is Bhagavata dharma. Those who know this have no sorrow. Jnanis will also think of their Acharya as God Himself. A man may see many things in his dream, but when he wakes up he finds that the reality is very different. You must think of the things of this world as things in a dream. To reach Him, think of His great deeds, sing His names, and dance thinking of Him. His devotees see water, fire, earth, stars, planets, animals, directions, trees, plants, rivers and sea as God. Such devotees develop detachment towards material possessions, and attach to His archa form.”
