A Rishi is on the path to Buddhahood, and will become a Buddha, one liberated from all existence. By definition, a Rishi is a seer, a person with extraordinary perception, and one is associated with every hymn in the Rigveda because they composed a portion of every verse in the text. That makes the text unique among the world’s ancient spiritual texts, because every other is exclusively the word of Brahma. The Rishis became Buddhas and were of a lineage called the Angiras, and many used Angiras as part of their name. In fact, the last Buddha to grace the earth, Buddha Shakyamuni, used the family name of Angirasa Kumara, and was of the lineage. There are nineteen Rishis connected with the first book of the Rigveda and well over a hundred with the whole of the text.
Followers of Hinduism honor the Rigveda while Buddhists disparage, yet the Veda is the path to enlightenment… to become a Buddha. Such is the confusion upon the earth today, and easily explains why a Buddha has not graced the earth in thousands of years.
Here is a verse from the Veda on How a Buddha Shines.
For the knowledge of how a Buddha shines with light, the brightest obtain the air to be present with the Holy Spirit.