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[Lord Mahavira's Twenty Seventh Birth
prevented from doing so for fear of digression and want of space. THE EFFECTS OF THE WILL-POWER OF THE
PARENTS AFTER BIRTH OF CHILD. So long as the child sucks milk from the breast of its mother, she is the chief means of the maintenance of its life. There is a close relation between the milk and the heart of the mother. Whatever she thinks or whatever she feels greatly affects her milk the liquid form of her feelings, and the child who lives upon that milk must be affected by those feelings of the mother. Hundreds of examples can be produced to prove this statement. The children of a mligant mother for instance are ever happy and cheerful. Many children likewise inherit diseases from their mothers. Let those who disbelieve in what we have said, feed their children upon the milk of a lioness and cow or of any two animals of opposite natures for a period of time and then see for themselves what a huge change would be wrought in their nature by the milk of different animals. One more proof will suffice. The so-called modern civilisation which is indeed very dangerous obliges the new fangled people of rich families to keep nurses for sucking their children. But the children, who are sucked by the nurses or renursed by their hands, however high they may rise or however great they might become in their youth or age, show clear signs of the merits and defects of the nurses upon their temperament as well as in their actions.
Thus the belief of the psychologists that the whole world is governed by will-power is quite true, and it is rightly said that mind is the chief instrument of bondage and liberation of soul. It is on account of this very reason that the
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