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Bhagawan Mahavir ]
[ 155
children of the same mother differ so widely from each other in nature and form. If one of her children is ugly and quarrelsome, another may be beautiful and peace loving. One boy is given to committing sins, while the other may gladly sacrifice his life for the sake of religion. The chief cause of all these qualities and multiplications is the will-power of the parents and its effect on the children at different times. It is therefore desirable that the parents who sincerely want to improve their children should always try to turn the current of their will-power towards qualities and good actions.
Lady Devananda, who was wise enough to keep her mind from all sorts of vices and deffects, thus passed eighty two days of her pregnancy. It must be remembered here that the Tirthankaras always belong to royal families of Kshatriya Varna, but this time the wife of a poor Brahmana was to give birth to a Tirthankara. When Indra, the king of heaven, came to know of this fact by means of his Avadhi-Jnana, he was very much surprised. He immediately sent off a god named Harina-Gamaishi and ordered him to go atonce to Maha-kunda Grama of Bharatakshetra, to take out the Jiva, of Lord Mahavira from the womb of Devananda and to place it into the womb of Lady Trishala of royal blood, and likewise to take out foetus of a girl from the womb of Lady Trishala, and replace it into the womb of Devananda. Having recieved these orders from his master Harina-Gamaishi started for village Mahakunda where he found Devanada sleeping in her bed. He bowed to the soul of the would be Tirthankara and then casting a speth on the whole family including Devananda he made it
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