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Bhagawan Mahavir ]
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20. Jina-Patha-Pada. According to which every Jain is required to give heart and soul to the propagation of the cause of religion started by one having no worldly attachments.
These are the ways and means for attaining Tirthankara--hood, and a man can rise to that exalted position in future by following and living according to any one of them.
Nandanamuni followed many of these methods and acted according to them in his life. He had accumulated so many good karmas in this very life that he could easily become a Tirthankara in near future. The last days of his life passed in practising austere penances. He kept fasting for sixty days and in the end ascended to the tenth heaven where he was born as a god in his twenty sixth remarkable birth. He became quite young in less than a Mahuratas time, and then putting aside his coverlet he set up on the bed. He cast a glance this way and that and was surprised to find him in the midst of celestial beings. It was not long before he realised the cause of all this. He felt that all this was due to the effect of his own righteous deeds. Meanwhile all his attendant gods came to him together, bowed to him, stood before him with folded hands and said, Hail Lord, Hail the Benefactor of the Universe, Victory be to you, Joy be your permanent companion, May you be blessed, May you be good ? Be our master, Be our lord, We are obedients. O hail, hail.' After having extolled him thus, the gods waited. upon him. Thus one day passed, ten days passed, a hundred days passed one year passed, ten years passed, a hundred years passed, till a period he enjoyed the heavenly pleasures most happily. Here the reader may enquire 'What is a Saga
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