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Bhagawan Mahavir]
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that Chandana-bala had gone out on some business and would return soon. But when she did not come back to the house for three days, he felt very much dejected at heart.
He tried his best to search for the girl, but in vain. He then took a vow that he would not take his food until and unless he saw the face of Chandana-bala. Knowing this, a woman, living in the neighbourhood of Dhanavaha, came to him and said, "Sethji, there is no doubt that Chandana-bala is a girl of an ideal character, but your wife began to despise her from the day she entered your house; and I doubt very much if she is alive now. You have wasted the time in lamenting which you ought to have utilised in making a search for her. I fear, you may not see her again. But still there is time. Take heart and try again. Search your house first, and then think of searching other places." These words of the women put new life into the veins of the banker. He felt a furious rage towards his wife; but thinking it to be untimely and of secondary importance, he kept quiet. He got up at once and began to search his house thoroughly. Very soon he came to the room, where Chandana-bala was lying absorbed in repeating the Navakara-Mantra, in the form of Parmeshthi Namaskara (Saluting the Five Parameshthis), with her head shaved, hands and feet fettered, and going without food and water for the last three days. He was very much aggrieved to see her in such a miserable plight, brought her out in fresh air, tried to bring her to senses, and then enquired about the cause of her misery. But as Chandana-bala was on the point of death; She could not speak a word; she only made gestures to show the strictness of the law of Karmas. Such women are really the ornament
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