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JAIN JOURNAL
own provincial dialect and enforced his words by dialogues, parables, fables, alliterations and repetitions. Here is a parable for example. "Three merchants set out on their travels, each with his capital ; one of these gained there much, the second returned with his capital and the third merchant came home after having lost his capital.” This parable is taken from common life ; learn to apply it to the Law. The capital is human life, the gain is heaven, etc. (The Utırādhyayana, Lecture VII). In short, Lord Mahavira will always occupy a foremost place among the benefactors of humanity. Perhaps he was the first thinker to recognise the many-sidedness of truth and to emphasise the necessity of studying it from all standpoints.
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