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JULY, 1976
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had no other occupation besides the meditation for the self and he belonged to everywhere he lived. He was neither anxious for food as he partook whatever came to him as clean and chaste. At the moment he was coming from the garden at the outskirts of the city wherein the Lord Mahavira was staying and he was returning there to the radiant presence of the Tirthankara. The following dialogue between Atimukta and Gautama conveyed the truth of life and sufferings:
Atimukta: How do you teach
and meditate upon yourself?
SAR
28
Gautama: [Smiling] Being
very grave I advise the people to be honest, to have the
evinced a rare talent and faith... right character and such others. With regard to meditating on self, I enquire, who am I, wherefrom I have come, where shall I go and how shall I be liberated?
Atimukta: You need not worry about your liberation. I am the prince
here. Pray tell me quickly, who has made you captive. I shall free you immediately by telling it to my father, the king.
Gautama: No that is not necessary. I have been held by none else but
by my own desire. I shall have to be emancipated from that.
(Adopted from the Bengali drama Atimukta by Sri Ganesh Lalwani published in Sramaņa, Phalgun 1382 B.S., vol. III, no. 11, p. 345).
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