Lord Bahubali

Lord Bahubali

Cave No. 4, Badami, Chalukya Dynasty, 6th Century CE

         While Cave No. 1 is dedicated to Lord Shiva,  Cave Nos. 2 and 3 are dedicated to Lord Vishnu.  Cave No. 4 is dedicated to Jainism. Here we find sculptures of Jain Tirthankaras or Gurus. 

         Son of Rishabhadev, the first Jain Tirthankara, Bahubali defeated his brother Bharata.  But became disillusioned with the intra - family feud. He abandoned his Kingdom and his clothes and became a Jain monk. He stood in deep meditation for a year till vines grew from the sides and enveloped him. His two sisters reminded him that he couldn't reach enlightenment as he stood on an 'elephant'-- Ego. ( We see the two sisters beseeching him). He also renounced Ego. He reached Moksha or liberation from the cycle of life and death. 

        Renunciation has an ancient ancestry in India. The human mind is obsessed with possession : my family, my house, my car, my laptop, my ipad etc. But we are like tenants in a house. Nothing is ours as we are not the owner. We are mere transit passengers.  Yet we crave for tangible objects. 

       Bahubali is a symbol of perfect renunciation, even of clothes and Ego. His giving up clothes is similar to the story of St. Francis of Assisi who also gave up his fine clothes when he lost a civil suit to his own father. It is symbolic of giving up one's identity. To give up ego, to see the world with equanimity is to realise the Tao-- all things are interconnected. Hence, there can not ever be "we" and "them", or "mine" and "his". Such a vision leads to the ultimate philosophy of "Live and Let Live".