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[The Saint Nandana & the Celestial life
ropama, and how long does it last ? and in order to satisfy his curiosity we give a short account of it by the way.
Imagine a well whose length and breadth and depth are four kosas (8 miles each), and suppose that this well is filled with the ends of just born children's hair so finely powdered that their application into the eye does not pain it at all. Now the time which will be required to empty the well by taking out one end of hair after every hundred years is called a Palyopama. While, Sagaropama is a period of time which is required to empty ten Kota-Koti of such wells. Although nobody has ever ventured to act like this, nor is there any possibility of doing so in future, still the omniscient God has adopted this simile in order to give an accurate idea of the measurement of periods of time such as Palyopama and Sagaropama etc. Had there been no similes like this it would have been very difficult for the worldly souls to form a correct idea of the duration of such periods.
After completing the span of life in heaven the soul again descended to this earth. This time it was the twenty seventh of the remarkable births and the last one of the soul of Lord Mahavira.
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