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[The Married Life of Prince Vardhamana
advisable that we must now purify our soul by taking upto renunciation. We need not vex ourselves on the question of the care of our sons. The elder prince Nandi-Vardhana is very gentle and obedient. He can very well maintain the dignity and tradition of our family. Vardhamana, too, is competent in all respects. He is loved by all, and people are religiously devoted to him." The husband and wife were at one with each other on this point. Therefore, they prepared themselves for leaving home and taking the vow of Samthara (renunciation).
The first measure that they adopted for the fulfilment of their vow was a feeling of kindness to all living beings. Next they decided to keep aloof bodily, mentally, and verbally, from the eighteen kinds of sins, e. g. injury, lie, theft, etc. After that they confessed sins committed by them in the presence of a Guru. And, then taking their seat on the bed of dry grass in a solitary place they took a vow to prass the rest of their life without eating or drinking anything. Religious feeling was already predominent in them for they belonged to the assembly of the Shravakas ( male disciples ) and Shravikas (female-disciples) Shri Kumara, who was a descendant of the twenty third Tirthankara, Lord Parasnatha. They observed their duties of an ideal Shravaka and an ideal Shravika very sincerely for sometime, after which they departed to the next world in great happiness. There they were blessed with a birth in the twelfth heaven. After finishing their life in the twelfth heaven they will born in Maha-Videha Khetra, where they will accept consecration; and after destroying the eight kinds of katrmas, they will leave this world for Eternal Bliss.
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