Sage Ribhu was the son of Lord Brahma. Saint Ribhu was totally devoted and dedicated towards Lord Brahma. He was very skilled due to which is still considered to be one of the greatest saints. His devotion brought him closer to God. Learning from him, all his disciples turned out to be successful scholars. Saint Ribhu was skilled in the fields of Mantra, Yoga and knowledge. He equally imparted his knowledge to others without any sort of discrimination.
Saint Ribhu lived a self less life free from any sort of desires and attachments. Mahopnishad talks about Saint Ribhu in detail. In the fifth chapter of Mahopnishad, Saint Ribhu has talked about the seven roles of knowledge and ignorance with his son. He told his son that knowledge and ignorance had seven different phases. The first was arrogance and pride in which a person is full of himself. It leads to material desires and detachment from the soul. Emotions like anger, jealousy etc are also results of pride and arrogance.
The first phase of the wisdom begins with the knowledge of Greeting. The motive of the phase is to awake the moral sentiments where the person loses the feeling of passion, and desire of infatuation. As a result mortification rises that leads to salvation. Thus, a knowledgeable person perform good deeds and attains salvation in the end.
Story of the Sage Ribhu and His Disciple Nidagha
Nidagha, son on Sage Pulsatya was the disciple of Sage Ribhu. Being influenced by his preachings, he decided to follow him as his Guru (teacher). He learnt a lot from Sage Ribhu on various disciplines and served him with full devotion. Sage Ribhu, on being impressed with Nidagha’s dedication taught him his philosophies. Later, as instructed by the sage, Nidagha entered into marriage and started taking care of his family. Once day, Sage Ribhu visited Nidagha’s ashram to meet him.
He went there in a disguise. Seeing the radiance on the sage’s face Nidagha understood that he is one of the great saints and welcomed him. Both Nidagha and his wife Shashiprabha served him unconditionally with devotion. Sage got pleased seeing the behaviour of his disciple and decided to put him under a test.
When Nidagha was serving the food to the sage, he asked the sage his place of departure. On which the sage replied bluntly that, “he does not come or go anywhere. It is his body who does that”. Nidagha got surprised with his rude behaviour, but continued to remain calm and perform his duty. A series of conversation continued in the same pattern that made Nigadha dissatisfied and upset.
Seeing him in this state, Sage Ribhu said, “since you are feeling dissatisfied and insulted, it means that you are still not able to get control over your negative emotions and need to work more on it”. On listening to the sage’s advice, Nidagha realized that the sage is none other than his own Guru, Sage Ribhu. He apologized for his mistake and touched his feet.