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PHILOSOPHY OF SOUL
101
she was the aunt of Chandanbala. With all this, she could have defended herself but why should she shield herself for her fault ? With this thought she remained silent. She reflected. "How could I err when I have renounced everything". With this reflection she repented with all the sincerity of heart. This repentance shattered the chains of karmas acquired in her earlier births and she obtained omniscience on the spot.
Mrugavati and Chandanbala were sleeping side by side on that night. Dense darkness prevailed every where. In the meanwhile Mrugavati observed a black serpent proceeding towards the arm of Chandanbala, so she lifted up Chandanbala's arm and the serpent passed away and disappeared.
Chandanbala asked her ! "How could you observe black serpent in such thick darkness?"
Mrugavati replied politely: "With the help of omniscience acquired by your grace". Chandanbala atonce got up and begged her pardon falling at her feet for offending her. Her severe repentance consumed her Karmas of her earlier births and she also acquired omniscience.
Some people admitting the intrinsic faculty of soul to acquire omniscience are reluctant to believe that the soul can see or know everything as there is no naked-eye-proof in this connection and also because today we do not find a person who is omniscient. But everything cannot be established with naked-eye-proof. Some facts are established by sacred texts, some by reasoning and some by experience. We may not be able to point out anybody possessed of omniscience but we do come across such persons with such type of knowledge to induce us to believe the possibility of an omniscient person. We would like to discuss this matter at length.
Omniscience is enumerated as one of the five varieties of knowledge in scriptures. Now if nothing existed like omniscience in the world why should the great authors of scriptures refer to it at all? Moreover prophets (Tirthankaras) are omniscient and they are addressed in the prayers as such. Detailed descriptions in shastras are available as to how they acquired omniscience. Shastras and biographies contain facts about great men and great women acquiring omniscience. Can this all be false or fictitious ? Supposing the authors of the sacred texts erred, but
