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Bhagawan Mahavir ]
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his cruel actions, he was not an object of hatred for the Lord. According to him despisable was he who despised and not he who was despised. He said that a man, who is really desirous of spiritual development and who is given to doing good to humanity, keeps friendly relations with all; he mixes with all and regards all as his equals. The Lord had also practised endurance, and the main object of his penances was to endure all kinds of troubles and hardships that came into his way of serving the humanity. He knew it quite well and taught to the world by means of his actions that a man should never be satisfied with doing easy work, for many spiritual powers remain undeveloped if they are not properly exercised. It is desirable therefore, that we should always attempt difficult problems and make them easy by means of our own spiritual powers. For the Lord the disability lay not in the man who was spiritually un-developed, but in him, who, being spiritually developed, could not bring him to the right path or who showed cowardice of any kind. By means of spiritual knowledge the Lord had known the cruel power of the snake and its source, and now he wanted to turn him into a peaceful and gentle creature.
With this idea in his mind, the Lord did not pay any heed to the requests of the cowherd boy but went on his way as fearlessly as before. Truly mountains are shaken off by the winds at the time of the world's destruction, but high personages of a firm resolve can never be shaken in their mind even when they are faced with greatest calamities. The main object of their life is to do their duty and never to do what is unworthy. They would rather die than to give up this object. Lord Mahavira came at last to the hole of the snake and choosing a fit place near by, he prepared him
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