By: Paras Mal Jain
One day three Jain monks visited Shirdi. Baba greeted them with sugarcane juice and enquired
from them about Jain mythology.
Baba explained after the monks left for Punatambe, that a chieftain called Naabhi, and his wife, Marudeva, had a baby named Rishabh. Rishabh became the first king and the first Tirthankara of the Jaina tradition. Baba told his devotees that he would explain the significance of offering sugarcane juice.
Also known as Adinath, Rishabh taught people how to live: from establishing the institution of marriage, adopting life skills, and cooking, to art, metallurgy, and even the Brahmi script. He 
gave them values and skills, such as ‘asteya’, not stealing another’s property, and ‘Satya’, not telling lies. He ruled for a long time. There came a point when he felt he had done his job. Once when he was sitting in the garden, he observed a flower wilt. Slowly, many visions of the impermanence of life began to fill his head. That day he decided to renounce his kingdom. Sai Maharaj explained that the act of giving up his kingdom and all riches to search for the Truth that is lasting and permanent in this impermanent world came as the lesson of aparigraha, non-possession. That was his day of realization. Before renouncing the world, he gave some important advice to his children about how to live in this world, equality to all being the most important, thereby laying the foundation for ‘ahimsa’.
He stood in the ‘kayotsarga mudra’ immersed in meditation. During that time, he uncovered a new idiom for a good life and the need to follow the four principles of ahimsa, aparigraha, asteya, and Satya – the destruction of desire. Baba reiterated his teachings encrypted in Sai Satcharitra.
As Upasani Maharaj did his penance in Khandoba Mandir during 1911-14, He neither ate nor drank, neither spoke nor slept. In that ‘stillness’ mudra he remained, unmoving, for six months. At the end of this period, suddenly, people found stirrings in the body of the still Adinath. Not only did Bhagwan Rishabh stir, He began walking barefoot towards the city of Vinita.
People thronged with all kinds of delicacies to eat, but Bhagwan Rishabh did not accept a morsel.
He went wandering from place-to-place begging for alms. For six months he did not get even a morsel. The year was now over. One night, Shreyans, son of King Somaprabha and grandson of Rishabh, had a dream that a black mountain had turned white after it was bathed in milk. Shreyans is an important figure. He is Adinath’s grandson who was later incarnated as Mahavir. In his dream and from his recollection of his past lives, when he saw that Bhagwan Rishabh walked into town, Shreyans knew he had to serve him ‘iksuras’, i.e. sugarcane juice. Adinath accepted that and, therefore, the race came to be known as the ‘Ikshvakus’. The body that had become dark due to lack of food was now aglow, true to Shreyans’s dream.
He went wandering from place-to-place begging for alms. For six months he did not get even a morsel. The year was now over. One night, Shreyans, son of King Somaprabha and grandson of Rishabh, had a dream that a black mountain had turned white after it was bathed in milk. Shreyans is an important figure. He is Adinath’s grandson who was later incarnated as Mahavir. In his dream and from his recollection of his past lives, when he saw that Bhagwan Rishabh walked into town, Shreyans knew he had to serve him ‘iksuras’, i.e. sugarcane juice. Adinath accepted that and, therefore, the race came to be known as the ‘Ikshvakus’. The body that had become dark due to lack of food was now aglow, true to Shreyans’s dream.
Sai Maharaj says among many other things that Rishabh taught people was what to feed a monk and how to live as one. It is also in this context that Adinath explains what kind of food may be partaken of so that the adherence to non-violence is complete. One should eat food as a bee draws nectar from a flower without harming it or as a cow graze on the grass without uprooting it. Baba justified his offering of sugarcane juice to Jain monks.
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