Darśana / Ribhu Gītā
Ribhu Gītā (ऋभुगीता)
The sixth aṃśa of the Śiva Rahasya (शिवरहस्य). The Śiva Rahasya is a large Śaiva work. It is outside the eighteen Mahāpurāṇas profiled on this shelf, and it is a different book from the Śiva Purāṇa of seven saṃhitās. Ribhu, a mind-born son of Brahmā, teaches the sage Nidāgha. He teaches the same recognition again and again, across a long dialogue, until "I am the absolute" is a sentence Nidāgha says as his own. Repetition is the method. The hearer is allowed to forget, and to be told once more.
A short episode of the same two names travels in the Viṣṇu Purāṇa and is retold elsewhere. The teacher returns and finds the student still sorting a king from a crowd. That episode is a few pages. The Ribhu Gītā is the long dialogue of the sixth aṃśa. The two share the names and the point. Ramaṇa Maharshi pointed hearers to the Tamil recension. That Tamil text is a rendering used in that lineage. This page sits neither the Sanskrit nor the Tamil. It does not freeze a verse count. No śloka is supplied from memory to look like the text.
Why it is long
- Nidāgha understands and then returns to ordinary sorting. The teaching's length is the student's ordinary mind, given room to come back.
- The sentence aimed at is first person. A description of the absolute, said about a distant thing, is not yet the sentence the book wants.
- The short episode in the Viṣṇu Purāṇa makes the same turn in a single meeting. The Gītā makes it the work of a whole aṃśa.
- The Avadhūta Gītā refuses the ladder in eight chapters. Ribhu keeps the ladder, and climbs it by saying the same thing until it is heard from inside.
नेपालीमा
ऋभुगीता शिवरहस्यको छैटौँ अंश हो। शिवरहस्य ठूलो शैव ग्रन्थ हो। यो तहले परिचय गरेका अठार महापुराणबाहिर छ, र सात संहिताको शिवपुराणभन्दा अर्कै पुस्तक हो। ब्रह्माका मानसपुत्र ऋभुले ऋषि निदाघलाई सिकाउँछन्। उनले लामो संवादभरि त्यही चिनारी फेरि फेरि सिकाउँछन्, जबसम्म "म नै परम हुँ" निदाघले आफ्नै वाक्यका रूपमा भन्दैनन्। दोहोर्याइ नै विधि हो। श्रोतालाई बिर्सन दिइन्छ, र फेरि भनिन्छ।
त्यही दुई नामको छोटो प्रसङ्ग विष्णुपुराणमा हिँड्छ र अन्तै पनि सुनाइन्छ। गुरु फर्किन्छन् र शिष्य अझै राजालाई भीडबाट छुट्याउँदै भेट्छन्। त्यो प्रसङ्ग केही पृष्ठको हो। ऋभुगीता छैटौँ अंशको लामो संवाद हो। दुवैले नाम र कुरा साझा गर्छन्। रमण महर्षिले श्रोतालाई तमिल पाठतिर देखाए। त्यो तमिल पाठ त्यो परम्परामा चलेको अनुवाद हो। यो पृष्ठले न संस्कृत बसाउँछ न तमिल। श्लोक संख्या अड्याउँदैन। पाठजस्तो देखाउन सम्झनाबाट कुनै श्लोक हालिएको छैन।
Where it sits
Aṣṭāvakra is the sat dialogue of sage and king. The Avadhūta Gītā is the short refusal of method. The Yoga Vāsiṣṭha teaches a prince by stories that keep changing the world under him. Ribhu teaches one sage by staying on one sentence. Four ways of saying that the self was never the person who practiced.