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Bhagawan Mahavir )
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of love and unity. The existence of evil and vice was extinguished. Jealousy and animosity were uprooted altogether. Violence and injury lost their strong hold. This world came to be regarded as the fit place for the growth of spiritualism. And selfishness resolved itself into benevolence and sympathy. In a nutshell, although this high soul was born at a time when the world was passing through the most critica) situation, still he charmed the people with his own great service and ideal renunciation to follow his teachings and spread peace and happiness throughout the world.
Here we divert to relate one more important thing. We have given above the account of twenty six previous lives of the soul of Lord Mahavira as ascribed in the scriptures. The reader may say that there was no need of describing these lives and that we have not only wasted his time but have also increased the volume of this book for nothing. But we assure him that not a single sentence of this book is out of place or inconsistent with the theme. If the reader takes whole heartedly and read the previous lives of our Lord, he is sure to learn many valuable lessons from them, and it is most probable that the current of his life may turn if he studies them with attention and care. For example by making a thoughtful study of them one learns what becomes of pride and what misfortunes befall a boastful man. The soul of Lord Mahavira in the body of Marichi had committed the single fault of telling a lie in self-interest for which it had to suffer great misfortunes in its future lives. Granted that it was also born in high families but, then, could it avoid its births or deaths by so doing, or could it lessen its mental and physical sufferings in the least? The fruit of all
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