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Enough has been said for a letter like this from the physical stand-point; a few remarks from the spiritual point of view will bring the point to a close. As I have already said, Jainism is the religion of strictest discipline and this discipline is maintained throughout for conquering one's ownself, since one's ownself is the greatest enemy he can have. Mahavir Swami was Mahavir i. e. the greatest hero because he conquered his own self. The perfection we aim at is the spiritual perfection with the object of removing the binding of Karma (Karmabandha) that is to say, to effect Samvar and to destroy the accumulated Karma. For these, Bahya and Abhyantara Tapas are the most necessary and they are effected by the restraining of body, speech and mind, in order to avoid worldly temptations and the like, by religious reflection and contemplation, by having respectful regard for the holy teachings etc. etc. When by these means, the accumulated Karma is made to evanesce and its further influx is prevented, such of the innate faculties of Jiva in all their integrity, as SamyakGnan, Samyak-Darsan, Samyak-Charitra flourish themselves as cause for the effect i. e. Moksha, the knowledge in entity, the emancipation of the soul, the eternal beatitude and so on, whatever you may choose to call it. Food is necessary for life just
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