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Bhagawan Mahavir /
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to be as patient as Earth and as grave as Ocean. Earth never shows anger for him, who spits or discharges excrements over it, or favour him who sprinkles sandal paste or other scented things over its surface. The saints should behave in the like manner; they should not be moved to pleasure or displeasure by their own praise or censure.
As it has been said above, saint Vishvabhuti was so strongly possessed with rage that he lost all his senses. He caught by horns the cow which was standing near by and flung it into the sky. Not only this, but he also felt a desire (Nidana to bring forth a desired effect ) to turn the fruit of his austere penances into an agent which could make him powerful enough to bring about the ruin of his enemy, Vishakanandi in a moment.
The reader should bear in mind that the Jain Scriptures have stictly prohibited to put the fruit of penances to such an end. The word Tapa (Penance) means enduring miseries and troubles with patience; therefore that penance cannot be called a penance which becomes a cause of pain and unhappiness to others. The penance is commendable and excellent when it does not harm any living being; it is good and beautiful when it is practised without any hope of attaining happiness in this world and the next; and one of the chief conditions about its being beneficial is that it should be performed without any hope for its result. A penance performed with the desire for its result is nothing but a kind of bargain. The real type of penance heats and transforms completely the seven ingredients of the body and reduces to ashes all evil karmans (fruit of evil deeds ) of the performer. The Jain scriptures have described at length the
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