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Being asked like this by Indrabhuti, people spoke at great length about the superhuman qualities of Mahavira. Indrabhuti felt in his mind,
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said,
'This must be a hypocrite, a dissembler, who has hypnotised the entire populace. He has entrapped them all in his snares. For, otherwise, so many could not have been deceived at a time. I cannot allow this sort of deceiptfulness being practised here. I have silenced so many great scholars. What is he in comparison to them? My scholarship is so far-reaching that being afraid of me, many have fled from their motherland. It is silly that a pretender should dominate like this in my presence'.
He gave a severe kick at the ground and stood up in anger. He printed a dozen tilakas on his forehead, hang a golden thread from his neck, wore yellow robes and took darva-cushion and water-pot. Then surrounded by 500 disciples, Indrabhuti set out and came straight to Mahavira.
No sooner did Mahavira saw Indrabhuti than he
"Hallow Indrabhuti of the Gautama line! You have doubt about the existence of the soul. It does not come to visual perception in the same sense as a jar does. You believe that anything which cannot be perceived by the sense organ is very much unreal as a flower blossoming in the sky".
Indrabhuti was surprised at the way in which Mahāvira deciphered his inner thought. This was followed by a long discussion on the Soul in which his doubt was completely resolved. Indrabhuti aeeepted Mahavira as his spiritual master, and with all his disciples, he took shelter in Mahavira's spiritual order.
In the same manner, the remaining ten Brahmanas came one after the other, and in the same manner, they too had their doubts resolved, and along with their followers, they joined the nirgrantha order. These 11 became famous as the Ganadharas (segment-leaders) in the spiri
