Brahmarshi, maharishi, Rajarshi, Devarshi, paramarshi, Shrutarshi, and Kandarshi are synonyms says Amarkosh, the book on Namalinganusasanam/ नामलिङ्गानुशासनम् by Amarasimha.
इमावेव गोतमभरद्वाजौ, अयमेव गोतमः, अयं भरद्वाजः; इमावेव विष्वामित्रजमदग्नी, अयमेव विश्वामित्रः, अयं जमदग्निः; इमावेव वसिष्ठकश्यपौ, अयमेव वसिष्ठः, अयं कश्यपः; वागेवात्रिः, वाचा ह्यन्नमद्यते, अत्तिर्ह वै नामैतद्यदत्रिरिति; सर्वस्यात्ता भवति, सर्वमस्यान्नं भवति य एवं वेद…. Brihadaranyak Upanishad 2.2.4
To me Rishis are thought experimentalists, the seers of thought during their Samadhi. They are men and women of transcendental vision, When in tune with the rhythmic movement of the universe, they can see and hear the eternal. To a high order seer, a seer’s circadian rhythm and the rhythm of the universe become one and the same. The divine words come to the rishis out of infinity.
Indian rishis didn’t simply compose a mantra, they discovered the eternal truth in the mantras during their yogic samadhi. The culture of India, I find to be the culture of rishis dedicated to Sanatan Dharma that pervades the mind and imagination of common people today. India gave the world the concepts of Zero, the decimal system, Algebra, chess, yoga and medicine, Ayurveda, natural fibers, buttons, and Universities like Takshashila. All this from rishis who could control their minds and see the world better and in detail. Let us discover more about the key inventors.
1. Vishwamitra, the third rishi of Rigveda who gave us the Gayatri Mantra ॐ भूर्भुवः स्वः तत्सवितुर्वरेण्यम भर्गो देवस्य धीमहि। धियो यो नः प्रचोदयात॥3.62.10॥ invented missiles. His name means friend of the world. He composed most of Mandala 3 0f Rigveda. The lesson of his life is that the Spiritual power is greater than the Physical. The name Bharat for India is after Bharat, his grandson.
2. Maharshi Yogeshvara Yagyavalkya (700 BC) explored the nature of existence and the Advaita Philosopphy, the epistemic doctrine of NETI NETI. Yagyavalkya is the thinker of the Brihadaranyak Upanishad, Satpath Brahmana, and the Shukla Yajurveda of the Kanva Shakha with separate identity of the Samhita, Brahmanasm Aranyaka, and Upanishadas unlike the mixed up Krishna Yajurveda. It is the Veda for rules of worship. North India follows Shukla and the South follows Krishna Yajurveda. He had two wives- Matreyi and Katyayani, the former being a Hindu Philosophr in her own right.
3. Maharishi Bharadwaj Brihaspatya, the third pravara among India’s rishis, invented the rockets and airplanes. Bharadwaj means one who brings nourishment. Rishi Bharadwaj and his student are credite with writing six books of Rig Veda. He is father of Dronacharya of Mahabharat and son of Rishi Atri. His asram in Prayagraj was as a great gurukul for training in Vedas, Pranas, Ayurveda, Dhanurvidya, and Viman Shastra. Lord Rama, Sita, and Lakshman stayed overnight during their 14 years exile from Ayodhya.
4. Kashyapa, Uluka, or Acharya Kanaad (कणाद) invented atomic theory of Anu as the smallest indivisible matter. He talks about atomic chages in ripening of fruits. As a natural scientist and founder of Vaiseshika school of Indian Philosophy including physics, he asserted that all that is knowable is based on motion. He writes about the drink soma in Rig Veda IX. The shloka below is based on his philosophy.
येषां न विद्या न तपो न दानं, ज्ञानं न शीलं न गुणो न धर्मः । ते मृत्युलोके भुवि भारभूता, मनुष्यरूपेण मृगाश्चरन्ति
5. Pingala (पिङ्गल), the inventor of the Fibonacci number, is the author of the chhanda shastra, a binary numerical system in connection with the systematic enumeration of meters as fixed patterns of long and short (https://web.northeastern.edu/shah/papers/Pingala.pdf). He was a poet and a mathematician. There is no poetry in Sanskrit without Pingala’s Pratyayas found in Sanskrit Prosody.
6. Sushrut, the father of surgery and Indian medicine, dates back to 7th century. He wrote Sushrut Samhita beginning with Ayurveda. The son of Vishwamitra, Sushrut is a 7th BCE seer with association with king of Kashi.
7. Acharya Charak, the medicine man of 100,000 plants was born in Kashmir of India. His major writing is Charak Samhita in use in India even today.
8. Garg Muni, advisor to King Prithu, was the sage of stars (Rig Veda 6.47) and a seer of Vedic and Puranic domains. He was son of Rishi Bharadwaj and the family priest of Nanda Ji, Lord Krishna’s foster father. Muni Garg conducted the thread ceremony of Lord Krishna. Garg Samhita is devoted to Krishna Lila.
9. Bhashkaracharya as a mathematician and an astronomer invented Gravitation. He headed a cosmic conservatory in Ujjain. He was born in Bijapur, Karnataka. Known for his differential calculus, gravitational theory, and the length of the sideral year to be 365.2588, the time that earth takes to around the sun.
10. Acharya Charak, the medicine man of 100,000 plants, was born in Kashmir in 4rth century. He practiced wholistic medicine and life-style as cure to human diseases.
11. Kapila, the Samkhya philosopher, who invented cosmology was the son of Kashyapa. Many tails relate him to Raja Sagar and the river Ganges. He is famous for differentiating the material elements of this universe (Prakiti) from the spirit, the Purusha. Shrimad Bhagavad Gita gives a good account of Samkhya and Lord Krishna rquates Himself to muni Kapila.
अश्वत्थ: सर्ववृक्षाणां देवर्षीणां च नारद: |गन्धर्वाणां चित्ररथ: सिद्धानां कपिलो मुनि: || 10.26||
12. Maharishi Patanjali, the yogasutra man who taught us the science of consciousness lived in 4rth century BCE. He takes samkhya notions of Ishvara /Prusha and Prakriti and enables us to concentrate, meditate, and secure consciousness in samadhi that separates Purusha from Prakriti. He renders yoga for the best of mind control ans self-awareness.
13. Chanakya, the rishi who predates Michiavelli by 1800 years, is the inventor of political economy as an advisor to the first Maurya King. He was a professor at the Takshashila University. Texila, which is now in Pakistan, was a Brahmanic city rules by King Taksha, the son of Kakeyi’s son Raja Bharat. He is known as a policy maker of the highest order.
14. Add to this our modern day Nobel Laureates
No less than 20th century Nobel Laureates of 20th century, these rishis were explorers and scientists who devoted their lives to public good and better societies of their times. I should end by a quote of Swami Vivekananda,
Beyond consciousness is where the bold search lies. Consciousness is bound by the senses. Beyond that, beyond the senses, men must go in order to arrive at truths of the spiritual world, and there are even now persons who succeed in going beyond the bounds of the senses. These are called Rishis, because they come face to face with spiritual truths.
NOTE: Rishi Agatsya of India got to Jakarta in Indonesia ( Candi sanibisanand Prambanan) is a miracle to me and so is the ascent of India’s rishis in Myanmar, Thailand, and Cambodia.
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