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STORIES DURING BHAGAWÄN MAHÄVIR'S LIFE
22 Nails in the Ears - Last Calamity
Twelve years of meditation and penance passed with great success for Lord Mahävir. His life was exemplary. He put forth unsurpassable examples of truth, non-violence, forgiveness, compassion, fearlessness, yoga and true knowledge.
In the thirteenth year he faced another calamity. Near the village of Shammani he stood in a meditation posture. Just as at the beginning of his asceticism, he met a cowherd who left his oxen in the care of Lord Mahävir.
The cowherd went into the village and returned a little later. The oxen had drifted away while grazing. Not finding his oxen, he asked, “Ascetic, where are my oxen?"
A cowherd poking wooden pegs in Bhagawan Mahavir's ears
Mahävir was in deep meditation and unaware of all this. The cowherd asked again, and once again he did not get any response. He was irritated and shouted, "You hypocrite! Are you deaf, don't you hear anything?"
Mahävir still did not respond. The cowherd became very angry, "You pretender, it seems that both your ears are useless. Wait a minute; I will fix your ears." He picked long nail like thorns from a nearby shrub and pierced the ears of Mahävir deeply by hammering the thorns in.
Even such excruciating agony did not move Mahävir from his meditation; neither did it evoke any feeling of anger or aversion in him.
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