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I AM MAHAVIRA
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THE QUERIES OF GAUTAMA
Indrabhūti Gautama has been my chief disciple. He has high regards for me. He offers appropriate reverence to all. He is proficient in scriptures and practices. He realizes his mistakes and ignorance. It is on this count that he begged pardon from the clairvoyant votary Ananda. He has been asking many questions in my assembly of listeners.
Once, while I was in rainy residence in Rajgṛha, he asked, "O venerable, please tell me about the universe we live in. How does it work?"
I told him, "I have realized that the universe is eternal. It is beginningless and infinite. It is not created by any body. It has two sections; (1) occupied and (2) unoccupied surrounding it. We live in the occupied portion- Lokākāśa. There is no creator, preserver or destroyer of this universe. The concept of creator cannot stand logical scrutiny as neither an embodied nor a disembodied (or without bodies) creator can affect such a miserable world. It runs on natural laws. That is why; it has seasons, rains, crops, sunrise and sunset etc. in a regular way. It is inhabited by many kinds of living being-small or large, human and sub-humans. There are
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