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was inclined to regard the soul as identical with the body. But Lord Mahavira explained the Vedic passages to him and also established by inference that the aggregate of elements in the form of the body must have an agent-creator, for the body has a beginning and a fixed shape, as the potter is the maker of the pot. There are Vedic statements which clearly say that the soul is distinct from the body: Satyena labhyas tapasā hy eşa brahmacaryena nityam jyotirmayo višuddho yam paśyanti dhirã yatayaḥ samyatātmānaḥ -- Mundakopanişad, 3. 1.5. — 'By truth, austerity, sexual continence, the bright, pure one can always be obtained. The wise, controlled sages see him',-and such others Hence it must be accepted that the jīva (soul) has an existence independent of the body (1684-5).
When his doubt had thus been removed, Váyubhūti became a monk along with his 500 pupils and followers (1686).
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