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JANUARY, 1976
in one's most original form. And that is all that the Tirthankara, the superman full of universal compassion preaches to the whole humanity, nay, to the whole living kind.
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By discipline, the Master assures, the perverted attitude of life diminishes, the metabolism tends to be purified and the whole lifeprocess sets on to be naturalized. The subtlety of character unfolds itself and grossness of existence ceases. The influx of karmas, to say technically, stops and the bound karmas go on shedding off till the total liberation from karmas is achieved. Cultivation of constant discipline establishes harmony on all the levels of life. Discipline on individual and social level, on mental and physical level is a must for achievement of real and lasting happiness. The process of discipline fruits with different poises in the form of non-violence (ahimsā), truthfulness (satya), fair-dealing (acaurya), non-possession (aparigraha), and chastity (brahmacarya). This five-charactered Dhamma is, in nutshell, what the Great One, the last Tirthankara exhorted upon the human beings of Jambudvipa to embrace and it bears the same significance, if not more, even today.
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