Rishi



In Indian religions, a rishi (Sanskrit: ऋषि IAST: ṛṣi) is an accomplished and enlightened person. They find mentions in various Vedic texts.

Quotes

 * THERE are many who, lamenting the by-gone glories of this great and ancient nation, speak as if the Rishis  of old, the inspired creators of thought and civilisation,  were a miracle of our heroic age, not to be repeated  among degenerate men and in our distressful present*  This is an error and thrice an error. Ours is the eternal  land, the eternal people, the eternal religion, whose  strength, greatness, holiness may be overclouded but  never, even for a moment, utterly cease. The hero, the  Rishi, the saint, are the natural fruits of our Indian soil;  and there has been no age in which they have not been  born. Among the Rishis of the later age we have at last  realised that we must include the name of the man who  gave us the reviving mantra which is creating a new India,  the mantra Bande Mataram.  The Rishi is different from the saint. His life may  not have been distinguished by superior holiness nor  his character by an ideal beauty. He is not great by  what he was himself but by what he has expressed.
 * Sri Aurobindo's : Bankim Tilak Dayananda